High on Placebo

Placebo Live in KL @ Life Centre.

There’s more setlist from Battle for the Sun album. Less from the classic: English Summer Rain, Nancy Boy & Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush’s cover) — yes, it’s very much a nostalgic playlist to me.

They play Every You Every Me, and that was good enough reason being in the smoke-filled mosh pit.

I didn’t have decent camera with me — make do with P&S.

More Brian Molko (minus the arse money-shot. What?), Stefan Olsdal (pecs and abs. What??) and Steve Forrest (boyish bad boy looks. What???) at this less sexually charge entry.

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I spent RM100 that day on cab fare (don’t you love public transport in KL?), going around Subang, Damansara and KL.

After few month of procrastinating, I finally send my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a couple of lenses to Canon HQ for servicing.

Gone to UFL to book Leatherman CX for my knife collection, since the staff at The Gardens & Mid Valley didn’t help much with the reservation.

Did some tax paperwork at LHDN, Jalan Duta.

Hours of browsing at Kinokuniya, which didn’t help with my current pledge for frugality — I bought 2 books there, whereas I already bought 1 book at the Borders, 2 days ago. Ouch!

The short walk to Life Centre from KLCC is all I need to end the hectic day with a blast of rock and roll from Placebo.

As in Hunny Madu (the Fly FM host for the show) shout out: It’s prayer time, yo!

Yes, I realized the irony of respecting the muezzin called for Isyak prayer in a hall full of testosterone and estrogen level mingling around. I much suspect it as a prayer for the Twilight Actiongirl to end their rave mix and let the real party begin!

Women/Ladies Reclaim/Rock the Night @ Arab Square + Cloth & Clef

Rumah Anak Teater, Street Theater: RAGUT

I cut it off during the embedded heckler intervention — nice touch to the skit. Shame I didn’t record it until the end.

I got a problem uploading HD file on youtube and vimeo only have 500 MB limit per week. I try to reduce the 1080p to 640, but it got blocky artifacts even with 5000 bit rate. Exporting to 720p turns out decent.

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Raw upload, no colour grading.

Shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II, wide open f/2.0 with Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, 29.97fps, 1/30 s, ISO 1600.

Mounted on Manfrotto monopod. Internal microphone.

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Here’s Malaysiakini viceo clip, that captured the ending of the skit.

Ladies Rock the Night @ Cloth & Clef

Amnesty International Malaysia’s “Women Reclaim the Night” on 9 March 2010 to celebrate International Women’s Day 100th anniversary.

This is the continuation of the previous entry. WordPress somehow refused to separate two gallery of different event — so here’s the second entry.

Cloth & Clef

Whenever Cloth & Clef comes to mind. The imagery of clef symbol that is created in my mind usually a different symbolism referred to James Clavell’s Shogun.

The clef musical symbol — or tauge as my roommate, back in Newcastle University who’s studying Master in Music Performance used to say — is an anatomical cleft.

Freudian maybe.

But more because I was reading this book during my primary years — and the graphic narration in it — scarred me.

Yet, I cherished the small library of James Clavell historical fiction at home. Growing up with the book however is a different story. The word clef, stuck as cleft in my mind.

“…poor bastards not hungry, he’s starving…he’ll gorge like a ravenous wolf…vomit it up like as fast as a drunk-gluttoned whore…eat like an animal and vomit like an animal…Not in front of a piss-cutting sonofabitch — particularly one as cleaned minded as a pox-mucked whore’s cleft!”

It seem apropos as the night of International Women’s Day ended at Cloth & Clef.

Clef as the symbolism of womanhood — at least in this perverted mind of mine.

“…lazy bunch of black bastards…how does one wear this? She held up the…codpiece…he wears in front, like this…over his trousers…over his cod… she looked at the bosun’s (codpiece) studying it. He felt her look and stirred…You want a quickie?…a bunk in the next cabin. Send your friend aloft..I’ll pay the usual…piece of copper — even 3 if your like stoat, and you’ll straddle the best cock between here and Lisbon…”

At this point the ladies bodyguard who doesn’t understand English senses something wrong and intervenes by drawing sword. The bosun responds by drawing pistols.

“Go on, monkey, come at me, you stink-pissed shithead!…tell this monkey to put up his sword or he’ll be a headless sonofabitch before he can fart!…monkey faced bastard pulled a sword…”

Reading James Clavell’s work, clearly doesn’t celebrate women’s dignity — much.

The noise at Cloth & Clef rendered that sexism at bay — yeay, girl power.

Solidarity Walk will end at Cloth & Clef, Cangkat Bukit Bintang for our Ladies Rock The Night Gig hosted by Rina Omar with main performance by all female band from Malaysia The PIPS and Liyana Fizi. The night will also witness a special performance by a band from China: The Overdose. The Gig also features musical performance from Liyana Fizi, Maleena, Beeha, Diandra Arjunaidi, Siew Wai Kok with Yong Yandsen, and poetry by Alina Abdullah, Marini Rafar, Fazleena Hishamuddin & Illya Syahirah featuring Amira.

To summarize:

Female gig performer: lo-fi feel at the preliminary set, some cover song and the usual radio-friendly lovey-dovey song.

Diandra Arjunaidi the Orange

Beeha Yeeha

Liyana Jasmay! Eh, Fizi -- FORKUSTIK @ Annexe Gallery inside joke

Poetry: the local poet up the ante with the poetry slam. Elaine Foster was there too — as an audience. Two of the poetry revolved around heart-break and failed relationship — the girls are mad as a hatter, must be the mercurial emotion. They don’t spit odium — only hokum at the podium.

Men -- you suck!

Experimental music: Hmm, can’t quite stomach it, despite the avant-garde nature — that is if you like the sound of barfing, tweeting and broken saxophone for 12 minutes. What a waste of 12 minutes of recording time in my precious Canon 5dm2. Poor baby.

Man, you blow!

The Pips: the heart of the mosh pit. I’m your new fan — Dyson Air Multiplier™ Fan.

Rina Omar: "Hey, we have the same height! High five!" A Midsummer's Night Dream's Bespectacled Fairy Reject: "No, I'm not." Rina Omar: "At least we're bespectacled."

The Overdose: the slosh of the mosh pit. The blue collar worker seemed to enjoy it very much — and it’s 2 am, imagined how much booze they drunk that night.

Ni yao si mo?

The gig ended with a cluster of punkish skins in front of the joint.

Tum-Tum-Tak

I bought Deepset – The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes album at the selling-booth (not in the picture). Here’s some swags from the event. Copic markers not included.

Amnesty International Malaysia swags

Women Reclaim the Night @ Arab Square

Amnesty International Malaysia’s “Women Reclaim the Night” on 9 March 2010 to celebrate International Women’s Day 100th anniversary.

I’ve been a paid member of Amnesty International Malaysia since 2007. I’m not a volunteer that day. Just joining in for the sake of human right (and some noise at the gig) — Women’s Right are Human Right! (Hillary Clinton, Beijing, China: 5 September 1995).

Growing a pair of moobs and being a bra burner (I don’t wear one), qualified me as a bona fide participant.

Dina Zaman

Dina Zaman launched the event with Kartini (Tini) & Rafidah (Rafa) of 3R as the host. The other 3R host, Celina, is asleep. No, she’s being undercover for some crime investigation tv production. I’ve to google for the host name (three of them), since it’s been awhile I watch terrestrial tv — well, I hardly watch tv for the past 5 years. Did I ever watch 3R? Maybe a gist, mostly the commercial.

Tini & Rafa of 3R

Dina Zaman just arrived from Jakarta and had to leave early (with entourage from Marie Claire). Rafidah too had to leave for Penang that night for another International Women’s Day event at USM.

There’s a short speech by Dina Zaman as the police hovering around the perimeter, at one point, a police patrol car drove real slowly by the Arab Square — but not intimidating enough. The ambiance was electrifying even with the small crowd. Maybe it’s the static and the warm hot night.

Hot ecstatic females that’s aesthetic — that too gave me static (and statics to the ground and statistics in my mind).

Is that sexist? It’s International Women’s Day after all.

Women with intellectual is sexy.

The Tree

Han mesmerize us with poetry reading.

Nora of Amnesty International Malaysia summarize the event and proceed with Solidarity Walk afterward to Cloth and Clef along Changkat Bukit Bintang.

But not after Rumah Anak Teater’s street theater skit: RAGUT — on snatch crime and marginalized sexy women that became the victim of opportunistic criminal. Sexy women is a victim too.

The Victim

This sexy woman is a victim too — of our tropical and global warm weather that’s shrinking the polar ice caps. And the trend is in tandem with the minimalist fashion sense.

Yes, it’s that hot (pun intended).

Rempit dude, who drives car in RAGUT

RAGUT, a street theater by Rumah Anak Teater held true to the intention of the event:

Women on a daily basis were forced to negotiate their fundamental rights to movement and personal security due to the climate of impunity, discrimination and lack of gender consideration in development issues.

Women continue to find themselves left out and be reminded that the Night is not a time for Women to be on the Street due to the risk of personal safety and violence. We choose to end this circle of Discrimination and the Culture of Fear that women are raised into and threatened by the possibility of violence to walk the streets at Night.

The rest of the night — is noise.

The Solidarity Walk is a whistle-blowing march towards the mosh pit of Cloth & Clef. We really annoyed those Indonesian makcik warung and Caucassian binge-drinker along the Changkat Bukit Bintang road.

Wow, I just proved that I’m not only sexist. I’m also a chauvinistic keris-welding Malay-Siamese-Arab-Yunnan-Chinese.

Take that #yorais!

I’ll change my mode now (this joke won’t get old — and getting old is never as old with #yorais).

Rafidah 3R is now live on Malaysiakini! Subscribe now!

That’s Rafidah on Malaysiakini webtv — “It’s an eventful night, I can’t wait to join the mosh pit! Look at my spiraling-rainbow skirt! Wee!”

The mosh pit came later after midnight, and Rafidah never did join us among The Punk and the Rastafarian. The blue collar worker was headed by Joe Kidd of Ricecooker.

Joe, mu masok doh dalang bloglines rolls gua, natam.

Fared-Faridah-Ayam on the lookout

Gallery of lo-fi female performers; poetry-reading; experimental sound of barf, tweeting and saxophonist-challenge tune (which is avant-garde); punkish mosh pit and hardcore feminism with middle-finger gig — is at the next entry.