Romeo, Juliet, and Solid Snake

If March had been merely busy for me, April soon came around and decided to turn it up a couple of notches.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, Carrie, Annette, Chow Shern and I helped out with a Universiti Malaya production called Ju & Meo.  First, a little background.  Megat, a student at UM, had to direct and produce a theatre performance as part of his evaluation.  The story (written by another UM student, Nur Ahmad) was a novel take on the famous Romeo and Juliet tale, imagining what it'd be like if, after snuffing it, Romeo and Juliet's spirits continued to roam the world together for 500 years in a never-ending honeymoon.  Apparently, 500 years of ghostly romance bores the shit out of people, so the play explores how Ju and Meo¹ cope with their lives metaphysical existences.

So, the four of us YKLS peeps were to provide ambient music and/or chanting, depending on the mood and flow of the story.  To prepare for this, we had between two to three practices each week for slightly over a month before the show opened in Istana Budaya.  Thankfully, the singers and other musicians (there was a cellist, two pianists including Chow Shern, and a guy on the sax) didn't have to do too much; most of the heavy lifting were done by the lead (also the only) actor and actress, Amri and Mardiana.  Needless to say, they had a crapload of lines to memorise.

Stolen from Picture courtesy of NST Online

Chow Shern

To contrast the white costumes of the leads and to create a deathly mood, we were given rather interesting costumes to wear.

The saxophonist buat hal.

Aku pun boleh buat hal.

It was quite an eye-opener performing for this play, with the script being especially intriguing due to the language; they made the Malay sound contemporary at the same time completely avoiding the use of English².

************

And now, for my story on Video Games Live.

A little bit of background first; you can say that I'm sort of a video game music enthusiast.  Unfortunately, since I can't play any musical instruments, I have resigned to merely being a listener.  It sort of began when I was studying in Singapore, and I needed music to keep me awake on all those late nights I sometimes spend mugging.  When it was time to pack up my belongings and leave the hostel for good, my iPod (may it rest in pieces) had over 700 Final Fantasy songs in it⁴, as well as the discography of several other games.  I really liked listening to them because having played those games, the songs sometimes gave me that goosebump-inducing nostalgia that could sometimes beat coffee at prolonging my lucidity.

My sister, also an avid gamer, was naturally a fan of video game music like me, too⁵.  She was the one who, about two months ago, told me that Video Games Live will finally be coming to Malaysia on 17th April.  As soon as tickets went on sale, I got ourselves some RM71 student-priced ones (though I've graduated, my card's expiry date has yet to lapse).

And then one day, at Chamber Choir practice, Tracy sat us down for a briefing.

Tracy:  So we've got two upcoming gigs to prepare for.  I've got a friend from NSO (National Symphony Orchestra) who asked me for a favour, since they're just the orchestra and they don't have a choir.

She proceeds to write the number 1 on the whiteboard, then 7, after which I prayed out loud "Please, please, please not April"... And then she wrote April.  I sighed and let her know that I've already got prior plans.

Me:  What time is the gig?  I've got an appointment in the afternoon, so if it's at night I might be able to make it...
Tracy:  It's for the entire day, they're doing two shows.
Me:  (Sighs again)  Where is this going to be?
Tracy:  At KLCC.
Me:  MPO (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra)?
Tracy:  No, KL Convention Centre Plenary Hall.
Me:  Huh?  But on that day Video Games Live is happening at the Plenary Hall-
Tracy:  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, we're performing for Video Games Live.
Me:  HOLY CRAP!

I totally did not expect the briefing to end that way; in one night I went from being a mere ticket-holder into concert-performer.  Also, I actually spurted many other expletives, but you get the idea.  It's not often that shit like this (the good kind) go down in your life.  Thus, I was justifiably jubilant (awesome alliterations, Batman!).


And so, that's the story of how I became part of the VGL Choir that performed on 17th April.  Because over half of the Chamber Choir members couldn't make it due to prior commitments, Tracy brought in her students from SMK Damansara Jaya as well as some of Susanna's Malaysian Institute of Art students to fill in.

Together, we sung the songs from Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Sonic (we just sang the chords for "Sega", that you hear at the beginning of the games), Warcraft/WoW, Guitar Hero (we just yelled "Jump" throughout Van Halen's song), Halo, and the perennial crowd pleaser, One-Winged Angel (incidentally a very easy song to sing).  My sister was so jealous of me.

We took a picture onstage, because we're hardcore like that.

It's also times like these that I'm so thankful that I'm in the Young KL Singers; it has given me the opportunity to do so many things that I never thought I'd ever do in my life.  Singing the Lord of the Rings Symphony, backing up for Sarah Brightman, and now this.

I wonder what other surprises lie in store for me at YKLS in the future.


Footnotes:
1 - You have no idea how fitting the Malayanised names of Romeo and Juliet are; "Ju & Meo" sound right just about right.  The same could be said about the show's subtitle, Cinta Agung Melayu; not "Grand Malay Love", but "Grand Love Wilting", as in Me-Layu.  Of course, I didn't get it at first, and I doubt anybody would have unless explicitly told so.
2 - There was an exception, though, when RoMeo sang a song called Aku Playboy Suci. For serious.  The song was a fun, uptempo jazz piece composed³ by Chow Shern based on the original script.  One of the themes of the show was that despite being unfaithful, Meo is so pure and loyal that he will return to the arms of the one he truly loves.  I wonder with whom did he cheat on Ju with, actually... other ghosts?
3 - Every other song sung/played in the show was adapted from varied composers such as Faure, Debussy and Evanescence.
4 - Once again, for serious.  The runtime is almost 8 hours, and the files are just over 3GBs.  Of course, some songs are rehashes, remixes, orchestra versions, piano versions, etc.
5 - This is probably the first time I'm plugging her blog.  She blogs a lot more consistently than me, and she even did the skin for her own site.  She's got mad skillz.  She's even a Grade 8 pianist while I... sing.  I'm still cooler, though.  Unfortunately, the title of the coolest sibling in the family probably has to go to my hip-hop dancing brother.  I just take pride in the fact that my England is better than his.  Thing is, he can converse in Mandarin and Cantonese, whereas I can't (without sounding like a rambling idiot), which makes this point somewhat moot...

What's been up man, how's your daughter?

Cookies (omnomnom) to anyone who remembers where the above line came from.

It seems to me that I'm slowly returning to my quota of one blog post a month¹, which isn't good.  But what can you do when your weekly activity timetable's like this?

Monday: Choir practice
Tuesday: Ju & Meo² practice
Wednesday: Ju & Meo practice
Thursday: Tuition
Saturday: Chamber choir practice
Sunday: Choir practice

In other words, I'm occupied on all nights except on Fridays.  I considered permanently swapping tuition from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon, but after getting caught in an hour-long jam getting to Bukit Jalil, I stuck to my original schedule.

Work isn't that much better either as March marks the end of a financial quarter, i.e. I've been working really hard at chasing clients for cash.  Still, I managed to find some things to do over the weekends.  For example, celebrating Sarah's birthday when she came back from Australia for a short while.

  That's Sarah with her default deer-in-headlights expression.

You can't tell from this photo, but that's durian cake.  Mmmmmm...  Durians...

And, celebrating Cze Wien's birthday when she came back from Australia for a short wh ever.

You guys should vote on whether or not I look good in a hat.

Besides, there was also Grand Prix: Kuala Lumpur on March 12-14, giving me and my Magic-playing kakis an excuse to spend an entire weekend geeking our brains out.  A few of us even took leave from work on Friday to have a Bak Kut Teh brunch before heading out to the tournament centre in Cititel, Midvalley.

Nope, I don't smoke. I just carry a Sharpie around.

Pork!  I'm actually referring to Peck Yun here.

I didn't take many pictures of the event, so here's a picture of me and the guys eating at TGI Fridays after all of us failed to make Day 2.

Since we didn't make Day 2, we decided to simply hang around the venue, chatting with other players, and taking in the sights.  Brendan wasted no time in selling cards, though³; so much cash and cardboard were changing hands that E-Foong and I had to act as bouncers⁴ to ensure that no hanky panky went on.

Monies!

We later adjourned to Chili's for dinner.  As per my usual practice, I ordered from the kids' menu⁵, eliciting an incredulous look from the waiter.  He asserted that it's only meant for kids, so I protested.  "I've ordered from the kids' menu before!" I said.  Then I added that I was only twelve years old, slumping in my seat.

Twenty minutes later, everyone else were already digging into their meals, prompting me to check with another waiter about my order.  Some time after that, a third, different waiter walked past our table with a dish in his hand, looked around, went back to the kitchen, then came back out again to ask if any of us ordered a kid's meal (as though it was a crime for me to do so).

It is a lot more filling than it looks.  Also, Cheap + Chicken + Broccoli = Win

If that wasn't enough, it also happened to be Wen Ching's birthday⁶!  That means he gets a free cake!

Check out the "Cheese Cake Beeezdeyyyyy Promotion" in the receipt.

The evening ended with everybody clandestinely spiking everybody else's drinks with salt, pepper, tabasco sauce, and what-have-you.  Despite not playing that much Magic anyway, I felt that we really made the most of that weekend (and in Brendan's case, he made some cash, too).  Good times were had all around...  And then it's back to work the next day.  Bleh.


Footnotes:
1 - I actually started writing this blog post at the end of March, but I've been doing so many things lately that I didn't have time to finish until now.
2 - Ju & Meo is a Universiti Malaya play that Carrie, me, and two other choir members helped out with by providing ambient music, speech, and/or screams.
3 - Brendan had been "trying to quit Magic" for years now.  I've postulated the hypothesis that Brendan has a ten-year quitting cycle.  I may be wrong though, especially since nobody really quits Magic, ever.
4 - We're as buff as it gets, as far as Magic players are concerned.
5 - Try eating a full Chili's meal after you've gorged on their bottomless tostada chips; I always feel like I'm overeating and/or overspending.  Once, me and four other guys from choir all ordered from the kids' menu, had a glass of drink each, and shared a serving of the chips.  We left completely stuffed, and spent only about RM15 per person.
6 - It wasn't, actually.