Busker @ KL

Was at KL a couple of weeks ago, this brother was busking in front of the chicken rice shop where we had our lunch. A simple Squier Tele into a pedal board & a battery powered amp. The thing about KL street musicians, they are super friendly & would engage you in a conversation readily. Despite the scorching afternoon sun, he played & sang his heart out so we pooled some money & made a deserving contribution. To all the street musicians in KL - respect!

Gibson @ Malaysia

There's a new Gibson distributor in Malaysia & it's not Swee Lee. WEF 8 May, Music Bliss is the go-to place if you wish for a Gibson.

The announcement was further fortified by this video. Implication? The next Gibson distributor in Singapore would highly likely not be Swee Lee. Owing to the recent legal debacle, there's no commercial incentive to further ally oneself with an ex-litigant. The matter had been settled out of court & it's time to move on. We await further developments.

Pics: Music Bliss

Happy birthday, Malaysia

To our dear neighbour - Happy Independence Day! I miss my moments there; seafood at Malacca, the hustle & bustle at KL & those serene sunset moments at Penang Beach... I just want to re-live those moments because they keep me sane. Really. 😔

This is my most memorable song when it comes to Hari Kemerdekaan. Watching Francesca Peters sing it on TV back then, I shared the proud moments celebrating national identity. My TV was monochrome till the late '80s. I was from a low income family. We inherited TVs from others who gave theirs up for coloured versions. We had not phone, no fridge as well.

This is the current rendition of the song featuring other artistes & Francesca Peters at the helm. Treasure your neighbours, they are the first to be there for you in times of need. 

Goodbye, August.

Pic: Bergerpaints

Malaysian loop

I was checking this out recently...

... found out that it's manufactured nearby 😁 Requesting my Malaysian blog readers to help me check the in-store price, is it as competitive as the international prices? 

The (short) trip

Wedding anniversary, short trip to KL. We've not been here for more than 5 years; way before they did the MRT construction at Bt Bintang. Now that it's done, there's less traffic congestion there & more pedestrian space. Anyway, I managed to drop by KL's Balai Seni (National Art Gallery) & came across this exhibit. The artist turned domestic artists' names into recognizable interpretations with familiar graphics & fonts. You should know where the above example drew its inspiration from. 

Managed to drop by Swee Lee's LOT 10 branch. No customers in store, maybe because it's a Monday. Come to think of it, there were scant shoppers on all other floors. It's not a good idea to locate a guitar store up on the third level with very low human traffic. Did not manage to drop by Bentley Music despite it being just across the road. We walked too much & was looking for a place to chill out. 

Petaling Street is fast losing its appeal. The place is suffering because authorities are keeping watch on the pirated wares sold there. The current inventory just looks rotten. There was no appeal to even browse the items. It was a quick round before grabbing a ride back to the hotel & prepped ourselves up for dinner.

No fancy dinner this time, we opted for a food truck night (@ Persiaran Hampshire, off Ampang Rd, across the road from Suria KLCC). So many choices at one place, that's the idea.

Capping off the night with an outdoor chill out- lights, wind & lots of looking up. 

A night across

I was across the Causeway last Monday night meeting brother Yus to hand over his purchases. Brother Yus is this blog's regular reader & a capable tech back in his home town, Selangor, Malaysia. He had bought some equipment for his workshop & I acted as his agent in the payment & collection of items to prevent shipping exigencies. More importantly, the tech equipment are fragile & there's no telling what harm could befall them in transit; we've read far too many horror stories pertaining to freight handling.

The meeting was a post-dinner gathering but all five of us (I had relatives & friends helping me with this matter- very thankful to them) had yet to consume dinner owing to busy schedules. We proceeded to lepak at one of the food night markets in the Tampoi vicinity. As seen in the pic above, the atmosphere was laid back & there was much talk over food- life, politics, work, culture, perception, anything goes to forge the new camaraderie. Food-wise, the food trucks operating here specialize in what's known back home in Singapore as Yong Tau Fu, a hotchpotch of vegetables, seafood & faux tempura food items dipped in succulent, tangy, creamy sauce. We had a serving of rojak & lime syrup juice as well over more than an hour's worth of heartfelt conversation. It was slightly before midnight before we parted company owing to the consideration that Bro Yus had four hour's worth of driving home ahead of him. 

I seldom venture into JB during post-sunset hours. There were no incentives to do so. This prime time is reserved for me to appraise my gear at home or sip coffee over another blog entry. This time, the friendship through this blog necessitated a meeting & it was worth every moment. JB at night is a town that refuses to sleep. Despite the weariness in everyone's demeanour, there was this sublime acknowledgement that we need to sit back & let everything go over good company. This lifestyle is much absent back in the Lion City. Every night, everyone's in a hurry to retire to re-charge for work ahead. Work that never ends & threatens to drown society in material living. 

Maybe it's time to call elsewhere home. 

Hiring @ Malaysia

To my friends/ readers across the Causeway :-)

Karao-guitar-ke

I went across the Causeway yesterday despite people warning me about the biometric i/d-causing traffic jam which could last about 4hrs or more. That's very damaging to the kidneys & bowel unless you do not mind answering the call of nature on the Causeway asphalt. My answer to this was simple; it's all about the timing. I left early in the morning & experienced no aberrations in traffic flow. Ditto the journey home.

But that's not the highlight of this post, it's about the karaoke sound system you see above. Judging by the build & finish, it's very much an in-house product which doesn't cost very much considering it's capable of collapsing a small theater as indicated by the wattage rating of its sibling underneath it. 

But the only concern here to us guitar dweebs is its capacity to accept guitars. So if you live in Malaysia, especially in the JB vicinity proximate to a certain Hindu temple, just a stone's throw away from the customs, you have yourselves an alternative.