Pink Martini

Pink Martini finally came to Malaysia to perform!! I was so happy when I saw DFP KL in their list of concert performances! (I subscribe to their email updates, and this email was in early January).

I was so happy I think I jumped around my room for a while before calming down and checking MPO’s website :P I was super excited as I haven’t been to a concert of my fave band! :D

 

You could tell which songs are the crowd’s favourite as the crowd cheered after the song title they were gonna perform was announced! They got especially loud cheers for Sympathique (my fave) and Amado Mio (also my fave!). The songs are in many different languanges, mainly English, French, Italian and Spanish.

Autograph session (only half of the band):    With Thomas Lauderdale, band leader and awesome pianist! 

One thing that really makes me mad is that DFP is quite strict when it comes to picture taking. I understand that we are restricted to take pics in the hall, but outside also?? Sigh…we were told no pictures during the autograph session, only afterwards we can take pics with them. But when they’re autographing also we can’t take their pics? Why?? At least they didn’t ask us to delete the pictures that we already took :)

Autographed albums :D

  Autographed program booklet :D

Couldn’t find any of their albums in stores, so I bought all 3 of the ones they sold that night (they didn’t sell Hey Eugene!).. RM157 in total! Wahhh!! Their latest album, Splendor in the Grass cost RM67 and the rest RM45.

Some of the band members were really glad to see us and kept thanking us for coming and supporting. Like China Forbes (lead vocals) said before the concert started, they didn’t know they had so many fans in Malaysia! :)

They have another album coming out soon. Looking forward to that :D Hope they come again!

p.s. Datuk Paduka (?) Marina Mahathir was there also, wonder if she’s a fan or someone invited her to go :) She was sitting in the row in front of us :)

Showstoppers!

 

As usual, when the new MPO calendar comes out, I scan through for performances that I think my parents will like, and squeeze in performances when I go down to KL (alone or I’ll beg somebody to come along with me LOL!).

So among the list of performances I wanted to go for, this was one of it as they were gonna perform Broadway songs - and it was awesome!!

Stephen Rahman-Hughes is a good entertainer (and dancer!) and included the audience. Its always more fun when you get a response from the audience instead of the usual one-way communication..hehe..

Stephen currently performs with his vocal group Teatro (which is Italian for theater)

The show was really good, and Stephen was quite the entertainer. Occasionally cracking jokes and poking fun at himself…hehe.. The orchestra was brilliant, as usual! :D I especially enjoyed the selections for orchestra from My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music. :D I felt like I was floating! On cloud 9 perhaps ;)

 

Both Stephen and John had great chemistry, they were joking around and Stephen claimed that the glittery purple shoes he was wearing was John’s! John is so far my fave conductor, and the first MPO concert I went for was conducted by him. It was 2007’s annual New Year’s Concert (old post here) and it was fun because he always tried to include the audience, for example clapping along to the music. In this performance we were asked to sing ‘Luck Be a Lady’ at certain points of the song :)

I’m pretty sure all the ladies were swooning over him and wondered if the men felt insecure for a while :P But I think everyone wanted to be ‘Maria’ (from West Side story) for that night ;)

They made us work for it, but it was totally worth it as they did perform 2 songs for the encore; Can You Feel The Love Tonight and Luck Be A Lady (after more screaming and applause) . I heard from a friend that on the 1st show on Friday he performed 3 songs for the encore, singing Over The Rainbow. They were supposed to perform ‘Memories’ from Cats but someone forgot to send over the sheet music from London…hmm…

Pics taken during the autograph session:

  So cute! :P

He asked me if I was from KL, and I explained how that we’re from Ipoh and love MPO so much that we come down so often.. And then it hit me.. Did he ask me that because I look foreign? Or because I look Like I could be from KL but cannot be confirmed? Hahaha... Anyway we have something in common which is that we are often identified wrongly, as he has been cast as an Indian or Puerto Rican, and people think that I m Thai/Indonesian/Malay/ceylonese(!!!) LOL….that’s what you have to deal with when you’re of mixed parentage!

Article in the New Straits Times (they had a press conference!):   

Autographed program booklet and ticket :D

 

Someday I’ll watch a Broadway play live! West Side Story is coming to Malaysia but tickets are so expensive!! :S

Until then I’ll replay this performance in my head ;)

Just in case you don’t believe me, here’s evidence I was there :P

Books!!

Now I’m not a nerd, but I do love to read. I used to read a lot when I was younger (ahem ahem) and had lots of free time (ahem ahem). Sometimes when I find a really good book I can just sit for hours and finish off the whole book. One sitting! Nowadays my concentration has reduced thanks to countless hours of watching all those TV Series…hmmm…

Here’s a few of my latest reads:

 

Hugh Laurie’s The Gun Seller (You know, that ruggedly handsome lead actor from that TV Series House MD). Written in 1996. He actually wanted it to be published under a different name but his publisher said ‘Do you know how hard it is to sell a book as it is??’ Hehe…pretty good, its a spy thriller, very British, very descriptive (but not too much). Very witty and would make a great movie if done properly! :)

Stephen Clarke’s Merde Actually. I’ve read Merde Happens (which is a sequel to this book) and Talk to the Snail, essentially a survivor's guide to the French language and the French themselves. Read this book and you’ll be prepared to go to France.

What? They were on sale! Haha!

1. Nigella Lawson’s fifth, Feast Food That Celebrates Life has tons of mouth-watering recipes which I would love to try out when I have a decent kitchen!! Also so many nice pics of the food! And even organized by meal types! eg. Sunday lunch. Very English. Maybe I’ll start with the chocolate cakes first for now :D

2. Kickboxing because I need to work out & know self-defence, and also cause it was super cheap! :P Just started reading about the intro..don’t wanna get hurt by immediately kicking away! hehe.

3. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom shouldn’t need any introduction, but is one of those books which inspire you. Have A Little Faith is another very good read which is his latest book.

4. Who’s That Girl? by Alexandra Potter because it sounds interesting (although there are quite a few novels out there about very successful women who are extremely busy and have odd experiences…hmmm…) and I read her previous book Me and Mr Darcy and liked it (because im a hopeless romantic). In case you didn’t know, Mr Darcy is the archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel's main protagonist in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. If you’re too lazy to read the book (which has a widely quoted first line), watch the BBC adaptation of the novel starring Colin Firth. But it’s always better to read the book :P Anyway a nice read, but also some similarities with Sophie Kinsella’s Remember Me?.

Time to curl up in bed with a good book! :)