Well, its back for the 5ft year. What do they have for us this year? Adibah Noor (Malaysia), Pascoal Meirelles Trio (Brazil), Jaume Vilaseca Quartet feat Violetta Curry (Spain), Djabe feat. Steve Hackett (Hungary & UK), Aseana Percussion Unit (Malaysia, Island Jazz Conection (Malaysia), Jeon Youngse Trio (Korea), Ray Harris & The Fusion Experience (UK), Friend N Fellow (Germany), Tran Manh Tuan Band (Vietnam) and Andy Peterson Inc. Together with the performance on December 6th (Saturday) and 7th (Sunday), will be workshops, Gallery, events where you can participate together with the artist such as Community Drum Circle and a Charity Dinner.  I did not manage to make it last year, but I did attend the concert in 2006 and it was fun and enjoying.

Tickets for the Main Stage performances for this year are priced at RM53 and are available through Ticketpro outlets. Please check Ticketpro’s website www.ticketpro.com.my for more details.

penangjazz.com

JamLegend is a web rendition of the popular game Guitar Hero.  Using your keyboard as a guitar, you can Jam through various gene type of songs.  I have not played guitar hero before, but I know what it is and have seen youtuber showing off their skills.  This looks the same and I enjoy it much.  The pace was a little fast when I started, but once I get used to the beats, it comes in natural.  Sometimes, I think my subconscious mind was driving the finger rather than me.  This was especially evident when comes the tricky sequences.  Somehow the fingers just grace through the buttons automatically, while I was thinking when I will be screwing up.  And the second that thought expires, I screw up.  As I played the song more and more times, I got better and able to accomplish the tricky notes, and that felt really good.  I wonder if playing the real guitar felt the same way too.  There are a total of 5 strings, and 3 levels.  Easy only plays 3 strings, while medium 4 and hard all 5 strings.  As you play and scores, you get groupies, which is like a trophy of your accomplishments.  Currently there are a total of 38 accomplishments, and it will take an expert of the game or a lot of time to get them all.  You can also invite your friend to a Duels to see who is better and also to climb the points ladder as well as collect accomplishments.  Currently the game only has guitar, but I see Bass, Drums and keyboard as part of the future offerings. After all, the laptop keyboard has so many buttons, enough to support the mention instruments. 

The songs selection are good, I enjoyed the beats most of the time.  As the game are currently in Beta, I expect to see some minor tweaks in the near future.  Currently, the game seams to load in segments over broadband, so if it is not fully loaded, you can expects to pause once you have finish the segment.  This disrupts the game.  I guess sometimes the loading speed is not that fast, and people may get tired of waiting, that is why they allow you to go first.  I have been addicted to this game for a couple of days and now tired of playing alone.  Come join me with the invitation below.  Just click “Join Jamlegend” and it will bring you the sign up page.  You will automatically be my friend.  Train up and challenge me.  Oh, the game is free, forgot to mention that. 

Join JamLegend

I for one love musicals, and when Mamma Mia comes to the silver screen, I had to see it.  It was just formidable.  Me and my wife had so much fun that we could not stop talking about it on the way home.  The movie had ended, but the characters and songs were still playing in our mind.  It was a Fun and feel good movie, and with Abba timeless songs, it was just amazing.  The guy 3 rows to my right, sang almost to every song, I know he had a great time.  Me on the other hand was moving and swaying and I pity the girl on my right.  On her left, she has a guy that sings during the movie, and on her left (mua), she has a guy that dance, it must have been dreadful for her.. but I see she still enjoys the movie.  

During the movie, there were moments that I felt free, to let go all the woes and rekindle me with my younger days of less worries and carefree.  This is what a great movie does, stirring up emotions unexpectedly and shows you how life can be different by just change your mind or the way you think.  This was a fun movie, the actors were visibly seen having a ball of their time.  The location were also lovely, especially towards the end, where the wedding were about to take place, a little chapel up on the hill, with lanterns grazing the entire pathway, it just bring awe to the entire audience.  Luckily I am already married, so my wife just say “when you want to bring me to a Greek Island” rather than, “I want a wedding like this”.  Oh, maybe the latter was cheaper.. haha, Reality of marriages where the guys wants a cheaper wedding so that the money can be spent on the honeymoon, the girl on the other hand, wants it to be a day of remembrance for the rest of her life, ie. grandeur. 

I saw 5xMom Lilian there, and I dont recognize any of the other Penang Bloggers.  The girl behind me brought her teacher (I suspected), and the guys was hilarious.  He smuggle food into the cinema, and keep saying that this was smuggled food, also he was saying that this was a ploy by the government to capture all bloggers into ISA.  I thought he was a funny chap. 

Its a must watch movie, something light, fun, and feel good to take you away from the current political and economical issues.  It will make you dance, sing, and talk about funny scenes after the movie.  If it does not do all that for you, then there is always Eagle Eye, which is coming soon.  Thanks to Nuffnang for the tickets.  Now, where is my old Abba CD?

Try saying that fast 10 times, bet you get your tongue twisted real good.  Well, I am ecstatic that the popular musical with the same title has finally come to the silver screen, and best yet, coming to Malaysia this Sept 22nd.  If you have missed the 70’s, then you must watch this movie.  It brings Abba (Angetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni) to live with hits like Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, SOS, and much more.  Don’t know Abba, that’s alrite, you dont have to know them to love their music.  But you must have heard of Dancing Queen, it has been featured in countless movies, especially 70’s theme movies.  Unlike other great groups of past, Abba have been keeping a tight grip on their music, and they were even heavily involved in the musical productions, ensuring their music were not being diluted by other creatives.  I am counting the days till the premier on Sept 22nd.  It would be such a treat. 

Yes, you got it right, I bought this glamour phone for just a little over four hundred ringgit.  I bought it over at Hua Qiang Bei in Shenzhen and it got one year warranty.  I was amaze by the feature this little gadget pack and how it looks and works.  The photo viewing works fine with pinching zooming capability.  The music player goes to album view when the phone is tilted.  This is something that other models could not do.  The cheapest I’ve seen starts at RM3xx and all the way to this model RM4xx.  I found out on the web that this phone’s name was CiPhone and it was a fake that gets as close to the real thing as possible.  Just search for CiPhone at youtube and you can see a wealth of video about this phone.

Out of the box, the device came with a sleve, earphones, charger, usb cable and a user manual.  All looks like the real thing.  You can check out a video I made unpacking this thing.  There are so many “iPhone” models over at Hua Qiang Bei, All the model except this one supports dual sim card and they comes with two batteries.  However they are much thicker and the dimension are much bigger.  But they have much more functions, some could even change song when shake, like the sony handphones when it first introduced. 

There are a couple of things that might turn you off, first there seams to be a lag on this phone, you will notice it on my video.  Secondly, the phone battery indicator can go up and down, especially if we let the phone hibernate, the next time the phone wakes up, you will notice the battery indicator shifts up a little.  This phone only supports single sim card, while other models support dual cards. Lastly, there seams to be a problem with the phone where after some time, the music player would reset the phone whenever I click on the music player icon.  The shop guy first says it was virus, then he said the mp3 format not compatible, which is all loads of BS.  Somehow the Chinese Songs that came with the phone seams to be fine.  So there goes, want perfect working beautiful iPhone, stay away from fakes.  if you dont mind this, then, it is a cheap glamour phone for you.