Radiohead – Reckoner (Leftside Wobble Off-World Excursion) WAV by Leftside Wobble

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song i heard on the the radio while parking the car. apparently, this was before she was famous, simple :)

Posted via email from izadd’s pemalas posterous

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our current favourite song for the weekend!!
warning, monsters and men in weird costume in video, parental guidance is advised! :)

Posted via email from izadd’s pemalas posterous

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something to perk you up on a beautiful saturday.

it was a work-in-progress for the longest time, finally seen the light of day. warning, a bit indulgent on the director’s side, haha!!

A&A Spaceman Remix from izadnhana on Vimeo.

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the blistering heat didn’t deter us from a bit of sizzling good time at the zoo on a public holiday. if we were on a giant grill, we’d have been pretty well done. auni’s toasted button nose and my broiled bare shoulders are your tender juicy evidence.

it was altogether a pretty good day nonetheless, as mentioned. if the children are happy, i’m happy. of course, happiness doesn’t come without a bit of prior warning. warning which sounded like this:

me: aniq, pls promise me two things today. 1) don’t make adik fall or cry. 2) don’t make mummy angry. promise?

aniq: promise.

they were pretty much kept on this particular day. when his sister fell on her own accord, he was quick to jump to his (self-)defence – “not me! not me! HIM!” (no, he’s not placing the blame on an imaginary assailant. he’s just still a little confused with gender-specific pronouns.)

on the boat ride at the zoo, he volunteered to carry around a snake skin for the rest of the passengers to touch and feel. before that, he was asked the two basic questions from the boat guide.

guide: what’s your name?

him (and by him, i mean the above-mentioned boy, as i am perfectly versed in assigning gender-specific pronouns, except with cross-dressers and transvestites, which are a different thing altogether, and i am meandering so far away from the course of my story now): aniq!

guide: how old are you?

him: 3 year old! (pls pardon his flawed application of plurals as well. he is only 3 years old after all.)

anyway, later on, as we were walking out of the zoo, the daddy and i quizzed him again, oh, for the heck of it.

us: what is your name?

him: aniq.

us: how old are you?

him: 3 year old.

us: where do you stay?

him: i stay inside my house.

me: HAHAHAHAHHAHAAAHAHA!

him: (in all seriousness.) *pause* mummy, not funny. not funny.

me: HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

daddy: aniq, next time say ‘tampines’.

him: pampinis.

kidzworld was crazy with kids running amok amidst the sprays and splashes of water, while the adults pretended to tend to the children but were actually secretly enjoying the cool swirls of water on their feet.

the girl made a bee-line to the water jets and never looked back.

sports illustrated – not!

i’ll keep a look out for the now-baby prawn’s smokin’ tan lines. speaking of which, she received at least 2 bikinis on her birthday. tiny, barely legal triangle pieces that would make even britney spears blush. i was tempted to try them on myself… but i digress. in any case, we’ll definitely have to make more trips to the pool, if only to make full use of her entire range of swimwear.

last but not least, thank you hidaya, who’s been a great ambassador to the zoo! :)

i think i remember ayu once said, in one of our crazy discussions on career choices, that she’d like to work at the zoo, even if it’s just to chop vegetables for the animals. looking at the people who actually work at the zoo, i think that might actually be pretty fun. i’d love to be able to talk to an audience like the animal show presenters there, they’re pretty impressive.

fellow zoolanders

ok, it’s almost 3am and my shoulders are tingly. i really should’ve heeded baz luhrmann’s advice and wear sunscreen.

which brings me now to copy and paste that brilliant song of his, which was, technically, not really sung, more like monotonously delivered, but brilliant nonetheless.

The Sunscreen Song

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97

Wear sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience… I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked…. You’re not as fat as you
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you
succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life… the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary… whatever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can… don’t be afraid of it, or what
other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance… even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will
look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…

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there was a time, almost a decade ago, when i finally decided to meet this guy for lunch on a saturday afternoon, somewhere in bugis.

call it serendipity.

we were actually acquainted some seven years before that, but being the vacuous youths that we were then, well, we never hit it off. only seven years later, when our paths converged again, that we discovered we had, in fact, many things in common, uncannily enough.

among them being, our taste in music. needless to say, idle moments were spent sharing earphones plugged to a discman. (you know, from the dinosaur age before mp3 and ipods.)

he used to burn copies of cds for me, and in return, i made him a compilation for his birthday in 2000. wow, was that eight years ago?? :D

so, what’s on it, then? erm, i’m afraid i can’t exactly explain all my choices here – he’d know the context and meanings best. i think. :p

1. soundtrack 4 2 lovers – mansun
2. ultraviolet (light my way) – U2
3. funny thing – travis
4. morning song – jewel
5. you & me song – the wannadies
6. with or without you (live version) – U2
[like, hello! mega bono fan here, of course. ha ha.]
7. hummer – smashing pumpkins
8. my dark star – suede
9. black star – radiohead
10. i want you – third eye blind
11. ice-cream – sarah mclachlan
12. all i want is you – U2
[we love 'reality bites'. period.]
13. what’s my age again? – blink182
[this was, after all, a 23rd birthday compilation! ;)]

of course, if we were to make a new compilation now, there’d be a whole LOT more songs we’d have to squeeze in. like our wedding song. (don’t laugh – it was a norah jones, lol!) heck, we’d even have to include our kids’ favourite songs as well. (as it is, aniq already has a few hot picks!)

and seeing how izadnhana intend to stick till-death-do-us-part together, you can say, the list would be infinite.

speaking of which, we’re pretty psyched to watch this movie, opening on 11 dec – nick & norah’s infinite playlist. it’s got michael cera, who also starred in juno (he’s grown so much since arrested development), and promises to be the kind of teen romance you wouldn’t find in, say… hmmm, high school musical? lol!

watch out for it…

http://nicknorah.com.sg
Movie opening 11th Dec!

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when you’re in the confines of an empty car with the radio airplay on repeat mode, your meandering mind tends to come up with some strange observations.

one being, that women these days are, in general, not a very happy lot, particularly with their male counterparts, as the evidence below will show.

1) beyonce declares that if she were a boy, she’d drink beer with the guys, and chase after girls, and kick it with who she wants, which is what her fictitional half does. (coz surely her real-life spouse, jay-z, doesn’t do that… right?)

2) katy perry gripes about how her supposed groom-to-be changes his mind like a girl changes clothes, and PMS like a bitch, drilling her infectious one-moment-hot-one-moment-cold refrain into his brain, and yours.

3) pink who just lost her husband (to divorce, not death), but so what, she’s still a rock star dammit, she’s got her rock moves (and loads of cash) so who needs him?!

4) britney proclaims, in all her usual articulate self, that her fella’s nothin’ but a womanizer, womanizer, oh a womanizer.

it’s a revolution, i tell you – women with the power to diss their men… and getting away with it (with royalties to boot)!

now, the men, on the other hand, are a bunch of lovelorn wussies these days. let’s see:

1) david archuleta whines about a crush. on a *girl*. (yaawn. i’m still rooting for him to lean the clay aiken way, give it time.)

2) neyo pines for bossy, independent babes who pay their own bills. (read: he’s a cheap date.)

3) t.i. offers his shawty whatever she wants. you know, the kinds of things you and me wants – bags, jets, stacks of rubberband banks. (hehe, i is rapping yo.)

4) some sick irish lads who refuse to move from a corner of a street just to wait for some girl. (how will they pee and shave and shower? not a great idea to woo a girl with a bursting bladder, grizzly beard, and B.O, i would say.)

then, to further reinforce how women have evolved into man-eating, power-crazy, power-hungry species, are the increasing emergence of shows such as:

1) sex & the city, or better known as SATC (THE show which probably set the wheels in motion for our generation’s iWoman-hear-me-roar-in-my-jimmychoos revolution.)
2) lipstick jungle (top honchos in the media, publishing, and fashion worlds, juggling demanding careers with neglected children, errant spouses, steamy affairs, etc.)
3) cashmere mafia (ditto above. with better casting.)
4) desperate housewives (which should really be changed to desperate husbands, coz the wives? not so desperate anymore.)

and in our local context, with girls making up the top psle students these days, it won’t be long before mediacorp catches on and comes up with our very own shows featuring high-powered women who’ve scrupulously climbed the corporate ladder or have superior hold over their spouses in the prime bukit timah suburbs. suggestions for show titles:

1) manicured CEOs in merlion city (shortform, MCMC)
2) stiletto singapura
3) kebaya mafia, and
4) don’t call me tai-tai

and to end this fluff entry, i leave you with katy perry’s other famous song, ‘i kissed a girl’, which sends a signal that girls are so self-sufficient and dissatisfied with the other gender these days that they’re eventually replacing men with other women in the equation. uh-oh. :D

Us girls we are so magical
Soft skin, red lips, so kissable
Hard to resist so touchable
Too good to deny it
Ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent

*disclaimer: the above entry is merely a frivolous jibe at the opposite sex in general, and in no way intends to show disrespect or create ill-will towards our ‘better halves’, whom we need to throw the rubbish, make hot tea, and change the diapers… kidding! :p

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“hi, the guitar hero super bundle will arrive tomorrow afternoon. would you like us to do delivery….” as my sms beeped to inform me. finally after 3 months of wait, the guitar hero is finally here!! I was really hooked to the first version of guitar hero that i played at my dad’s house that i told myself if i got a ps3, guitar hero would be the first game i purchase. great timing it was that the latest version with drums will be coming out soon!

forward to friday 7 november, 6pm, as i await patiently for the delivery, 2 guys from the game shop arrived as expected with a very huge box!! yes, finally i could relive my childhood dream to be a drummer, haha!!

anyway, i’ve shot the unboxing of the guitar hero super bundle and did a short drumming session to show you what a great piece of gaming this is. so if you guys are up for a jamming session, you know where to come. :)

Unboxing Of Guitar Hero World Tour from izadnhana on Vimeo.

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it is an established fact that more often than not, it is the gormless s’porean caller who gets picked to go on radio to answer the most idiot-proof of all quizzes and win prizes.

this morning on ninety-one point three FM:

DJ introduces Gormless Caller (GC) and explains that to win a prize, he has to sing the next line to a song.

Studio Guest (SG), a local singer wielding a guitar, says she will sing a suzanne vega song since she will be performing in s’pore next month.

GC has not heard of suzanne vega, guitars, or music. it is a miracle he managed to dial the number of the said radio station in the first place. he probably meant to order a pizza or KFC buddy meal for himself.

SG proceeds to sing the first line, “My name is Luca…”

GC clams up.

SG begins to understand the gormless nature of radio callers in general and decides to be generous by continuing second line of song, “I live on the second ____.”

GC is still decidedly clueless.

DJ and SG try to cajole an answer out of GC with numerous clues. “It rhymes with door… more… four… etc. Let’s say you live on the ninth…?”

GC attempts.

“… storey?”

:S

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thank you for leaving the cd in the car. <3

[track #3: breathe]

ps: can we buy more cds, pls? or… at least get me my own damn i-pod/nano/whatever to play in the car!

disclaimer: this is NOT a birthday gift hint. that one’s still being carefully deliberated.

pps: wait, don’t i owe you one too?? whoops.

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he’d fit right in the moshpit, i tell ya…

jumping, head-banging, air-drumming and all.

(and yeah, he even knows there’s the word “throw” somewhere in the second song, lol!)

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the plan was to get the tickets at the last minute. it could backfire if no one is selling them. i initially wanted to get the standing tickets but the wifey wasn’t too keen on jumping up and down and moshing around with the rest, dah tuek she said. anyway, my bro called me up a day before the concert, “got tickets, $100 for a pair, want or not?” he asked, not bad since the usual price was $60 a piece. but i got a feeling that i could get it lower. i told him, “$70, for a pair, tak nak takpe, besok confirm dia desperate.”

i told him the lowest i could go was $80. so he offered $80 to the guy, the guy smsed back, “$100, firm“. ok, we didn’t buy his bluff. so true to my gut feeling, he called up the next day and sold off the tickets for $120 for 2 pairs!! haha, good things come to those who wait, indeed!

we got there around 745pm, managed to grab dinner at McD. the stadium was still filling up with queues snaking up right to the main steps. saw many people in office attire. a few angmoh parents were with their kids. aniq would definitely enjoy the concert, but darned, only kids above the age of 7 years are allowed. or well, another 5 years then before his first live concert!

our seats were up at the balcony, which was on the second floor. it’s ok, since the objective was just to chill and enjoy the performance. i could see that the standing area was almost 90% filled up. they had these huge white curtains covering the stage. the anticipation was really building up. the crowd was really getting all hyped up, cheering at every sound check, expecting the curtains to come down any time.

anyway at around 9pm, after waiting for what seemed like forever, the lights dimmed, and through the curtains, we could see the band members’ shadows, which was followed by rousing cheers of the crowd. with the curtains still down, they played the instrumental song, ”wake” to build up the crowd momentum, and just right at its peak, jumped into their first song, “given up“. the crowd wasted no time in showing their approval by jumping and shoving and screaming to the lyrics. but right after the second song, chester saw that the crowd in front was really shoving too close to the stage, stopped and pleaded to the crowd to back up a little, and remarked jokingly, “it’s like live aid all over again!” before going into the next song, “no more sorrow“.

they played the songs from the last few albums, but i especially enjoyed the unplugged version of “pushing me away“, just mike shinoda on piano, and chester bennington on vocals, the haunting line, ”….. the sacrifice is never knowing why” kept repeating in my mind. great bands always play their songs differently during concerts, and the stripped down version of “pushing me away” showed how versatile the band is. even the first part of “breaking the habit” was a slow build up to the original upbeat version.

i always prefer the angry raging songs of their older albums, but i guess after years of anger, they had to mellow down. my wife is one who enjoys the songs from their latest album. especially the song, “shadow of the day“, even comparing the song as U2ish. but from the feel of the crowd, they definitely enjoyed the hard rocking numbers, jumping and shouting, especially the crowd favourite, “in the end“, even esah was seen singing screaming along to the lyrics!

overall, it was an enjoyable evening. great tight set. the sound was perfect, the music didn’t overpower the vocals and chester’s voice was great even after a few screaming songs, it’s amazing how he managed to stay on key. after the performance, the group paid tribute to the fans by thanking and bowing to them. they even found the time to throw their guitar picks, drum sticks, t-shirts and splashed water playfully at the crowd! best concert so far this year!

more linkin park pictures at my flickr site!

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linkin park?

tonite?

should we or should we not?

$80 for two tix!

nevermind that it’s in the B gallery. loud music is loud music, we’d definitely hear it. :p

but the guilt of leaving him behind for a night is… urgh.

he woke up at six this morning and went “mimmy! mimmy!”, appearing next to me in bed with a smile on his face, “dwaw! dwaw!” because the night before, we had a loooong magna-doodle session in his bed which he clearly enjoyed since it was the first thing he thought of this morning.

also, last evening, while i was washing up, i really listened to his ‘play-acting script’, which went on outside my bathroom, and realised what he’d been going on about the past few days:

“bang bang! i shoot… bang bang! i shoot. arrghh… ATI DA BOT!”
*proceeds to turn his firetruck over*

ok, the first part was easy enough, he was indulging in his daily (and apparently, nightly) game of shooting, this time with his toy trumpet, which kinda makes a good makeshift machine gun if you look at it. the last part had been a bit of a puzzle to us but we thought it was just his usual gibberish.

but the antenna in the mommy-translator buzzed last night, and it dawned on me.

he’d been watching the transformers dvd his daddy had bought for $12 at mustaffa the other day, thus the line, “MATI THE ROBOT!”, which i, of course, was guilty of commentating during the show.

so i sought clarification, “robot dia mati?” and he nodded.

so there. the fire truck was his victimised autobot.

anyway, back to the linkin park conundrum.

to go or not to go?

will i miss out on another ‘epiphany’ if i do?

… or will i miss out on the excitement and possible drama of heart attacks and fits in the audience from the loud music and strobe lights? :D

ouhh, decisions, decisions…

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if you ask me where my drumsticks are, i’ll tell you they’re OUTSIDE the window. yeah, yeah, so i flung them out, in one of my experiments to see whether drumsticks could fly. (and i tell you, they can’t, not even the fried chicken kind.)

so, since i still have musical ambitions, i had to modify, and made do with my xylophone sticks instead. they’re *almost* the same, but not quite. (you can’t dig your nose as well with xylophone sticks, as i found out.)

anyway, i heard that megadeth was coming to singapore, so i thought i’d step up on my drumming skills and did some intensive practicing. who knows, maybe i could apply to be the backup drummer should theirs dislocate his shoulders, or get a heart attack and keel over just before the show (well, they ARE very old, or so i heard), or have a bad bout of stomachache from the spicy seafood at newton.

and then, mum had to burst my bubble by telling me that i was too late and they’d already performed last night! sheeesh. well hey, there’s still that other grandpa band, black sunday or sabbath or something, right?

speaking of bands in black, i also heard that My Chemical Romance is coming in december! the day AFTER my birthday, to be exact. fwah! maybe i could get a ticket as a birthday present! (please? pweety please??)

or better still, if i could somehow spike the drummer’s laksa or mee pok with extra cili padi just before the show…

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