Far Away

I used to love this band when I was in college. These were the good old days of OAG, Poetic Ammo, Too Phat, Nice Stupid Playground, Tempered Mental, Jason Lo, Innuendo and the list goes on.

Just had an urge to listen to it today, brings back great memories.

John's Mistress - if you're reading... thank you for the music :)

p/s: lyrics were typed out as the song went out so I'm not sure how accurate they are :P



John's Mistress - Faraway
Bluer skies never die
Things will never be the same
Time flies by, so fast
Soon winds always change

Who are those, who said
Life is just a game?
Sand blew blows, water flows
But I can't take it any more

Where do we go, from here?
Cuz I've been sleeping for so long
Where do we go, from now?
Do we have to stay this way?

Darker skies, never fall
Life will never stay the same
Everyone seems to know
How to put the blame on them

Where do we go, from here?
Cuz I've been sleeping for so long
Where do go, from now?
Do we have to stay this way?

You can't feel my pain
You can't feel my soul

Who are those who said
Life is just a game
Sand blew blows, water flows
But I can't take it any more

Where do we go, from here?
Cuz I've been sleeping for so long
Where do go, from now?
Do we have to stay this way?

Never go.... far away.... 
Never go.... far away....
Never go.... far away....
Never go.... far away....
Never go.... far away....

Oh and there's a pretty good acoustic version here!!!
  

Sound of the drums

Sound Of The Drums
(feat. Laura Jansen)

My heart is a beating drum
Moves mountains it’s so strong
My love is a silent song
Everybody moves
Everybody moves

And I wait all day, I won’t give up
’till the sound of the drums bring you back to love
And I wait all day, I won’t give up

Back to love
Back to love

And I wait all day, I won’t give up
’till the sound of the drums bring you back to love
And I wait all day, I won’t give up

Nothing comes easy

I came across this video documentary - A Year with Armin van Buuren where cameras follow him for a full year (Nov 2010 - 2011) it shows you what it's like to be him.

Watching it really  makes me realize a couple of things
1. He's really just one of us - goofy with major OCD issues :P
2. The saying 'love what you do and you'll never have to work for the rest of your life' is pretty much true in his case. So when you find what you love. Stick to it.
3. I admire his strength, passion, positivity and humbleness.
4. He works really damn hard (which is what inspired the blog title).





Hit play to get a glimpse of what his life is like.

This is not what I expected...

But then again to be fair, Armin van Buuren's music videos have never really been that all cool. His live performances are much better~

When he posted teasers about a Ping Pong video, I was crazy excited. But looking at the teaser... I'm torn between wanting to learn that dance... or cringing :P

Sorry Armin, but making music videos really isn't your forte!

U

This is one of those songs, that I never really paid attention to, until the chorus kicks in and I get in SUCH AN EMOTIONAL HIGH.

Originally a song by Bo Bruce (btw you should really check out who she is, I know I was amazed when I did!), this track was co-written with former The Voice UK mentor Danny O'Donoghue and titled - Alive. Now here's the part that I'm not really sure about - how Gareth Emery came into the picture and why was it changed to "U" ... seriously, I can't seem to find anything about it around!!!

Anyways, I hope you like this as much as I do




And here's the original !



U
Walking down the highway traffics coming my way
all I see are flashing lights
People wearing blue suits wanna know the real truth
how many did I have tonight?
Looking at the wreckage anyone would guess that all inside had died
But I'm alive

Wake up in a strange place angels over my head
one of them is shouting clear
1000 bolts of lightning bring me back to life
and it's a miracle that I'm still here
As I'm coming to life screaming out for you I need you by my side
Now I'm alive

No I didn't pray to God
No I never saw the light
No I didn't watch my life go flashing right before my eyes
No I didn't do the things that they all said that I would do
I just close my eyes and all I saw was you

All the things in my head everything left unsaid
I never got a second to say
Knew that I adored you the moment that I saw you
just terrified you'd push me away
Though we're dying slowly just want you to hold me what are we waiting for
We're alive

No I didn't pray to God
No I never saw the light
No I didn't watch my life go flashing right before my eyes
No I didn't do the things that they all said that I would do
I just close my eyes and all I saw was you

If I don't die lying in the rain and I live another day
then I'd run to you
Cos I don't have regrets just things I never say I need you

No I didn't pray to God
No I never saw the light
No I didn't watch my life go flashing right before my eyes
No I didn't do the things that they all said that I would do
I just close my eyes and all I saw was you

This Is What It Feels Like

Okay this song... and Ping Pong are like my anthems at the moment. 

I love this rendition by John Ewbank & the Metropole Orkest along with the man himself, Armin van Buuren on The Voice of Holland.

Ping Pong

Okay... I liked the song before I went to ASOT650MY and I had it running on my playlist.

But ever since ASOT650MY, this song has been friggin stuck in my head!!! 

I can't stop it!!!

IT'S

SO

ADDICTIVE

p/s: you'll understand why I'm going nuts over this if you watch the video.... or not :P

Video taken from ASOT650 in Utretch (I was too busy bopping around to take a video during the Kuala Lumpur gig)

Forgive me, my dear fans but I will be bombarding the blog with clips from Armin van Buuren :P

My first...

Hahaha got you there a bit with the title, now didn't I?

Well it was my first music festival... or some would call it a rave. I don't care what you call it but I had a hella time there. Say what you want, the trancefamily is loving and caring no matter what they're there for.

Now that I've been to ASOT, my next target is AO!!!

Anyways, I just wanted to say Armin van Buuren was a god... a legend. I am SO in love with him right now. 

Armin if you're reading this... I'm sorry if I sound like a stalker hahaha but you were really that amazing. 

Thank you

 Seriously... how cute is he? 

I loved every moment he was on stage. 

Pix stolen from here because I was like...

Yeah okay here are my pix

Yeah that's the KittyKat and me before going in and bopping our heads off.

 I didn't realize that there was a barricade right there.... this is as far as we can go... the rest in front are the VIPs. Dammit... next time I'm going VIP all the way...

Anyways I say I don't have really good pix because of this control panel hut thingie on the right... they had a camera man sitting on the left most corner of it... and when it started to drizzle... he whipped out this huge ass brolly and left it there for the whole night.

All my pix have them >.<

Meeting my childhood idol

I'm still pretty chuffed about this whole thing. About 2 weeks ago I got a phone call telling me that I've won tickets to the Richard Clayderman Romantique Concert in KL. 

To top it off, it was a pair of gold tickets + a meet and greet!!! I'm finally meeting  my childhood dream musician play live AND I get to meet him! How great is that?

I won it via a Facebook contest and I really couldn't believe my ears when they called to let me know. 

So I called mum up to tell her that we're going to see Richard Clayderman play live, I cried. I really couldn't believe that I would meet the man who inspired me to play the piano.

This is him playing Ballade Pour Adeline. The only disappointment I felt during the entire concert was that the Gold seats were a bit TOO far away. I could barely see his face, I mean, they could put some other dude in place and I wouldn't know any better. Thank goodness for the two projector screens!!!

He's definitely aged quite a bit since, I mean I'm already past 30 :P but his playing is impeccable. I cried so many times throughout his performance because I felt sooo incredibly lucky and humbled to be there!

Then to top it off, we got to say hello to him! It was rather strict though, like they would only allow 10 people in at any one time and we were to only take group photos.

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately for us!),  there was a bit of a problem as we were about to enter. They pulled mum in without me and we really wanted to go in together. Then there was this little girl in front of me, whose mum wasn't allowed to go in with her (because they had only one pass), so I offered to accompany her in, just so that she wouldn't be alone. 

But after a bit of confusion here and there, they let the little girl in with one of the staff and I went in to join mum.

The best bit of this entire evening? Mum and I were the only ones in there with Richard so we got a personal photo with him :)

The beautiful people....

I had pretty much forgot about Marilyn Manson. My music preference really jumps rather randomly. Like one week I'll be hankering for Lady Antebellum, then it suddenly switches to Utada Hikaru, then I hop on over to Armin or cuddle up to Leehom.... and as of yesterday afternoon... I'm on an MM craze.

The boyf showed me a pic over the weekend and asked "Can you tell who they are?"

It took me a while because I could barely recognize either one of them.

"That's Johnny and Marilyn..."

Two things.

One

I knew the Deppster has always been playing the guitar but it never occured to me that he was going mainstream.

Two

What on earth happened to MM? He looked so different (and when I say different I don't mean good different).

Then I did a quick Google search and found out that MM asked the Deppster to join him on stage for the Revolver Golden Gods 2012 performance... and

Oh

Emm

Gee

I have never seen a sexier Johnny than this...

Somebody's Miracle

I just heard this song earlier today and the lyrics just reached out to me... so I thought I'd like to share it.

I'm feeling a little left out in life and also a teensy bit melancholic because I tend to care about everyone around me, but me. I'm a daughter, girlfriend, mother (to furkids), co-worker, writer but never myself... and sometimes it frustrates me to no end... other times it scares the crap out of me. 

I wonder if I'm anybody's miracle....

Liz Phair - Somebody's Miracle

I'm so far, so far away from it now

That it seems like I may never know how

People stay in love for half of their lives

It's a secret they keep between husbands and wives

Baby, There goes somebody's miracle

Walking down the street

There goes some other fairy tale

I wish it could happen to me

But I look at myself

Wonderin' if i'm just too weak

To have such faith in myself

Once upon a time I was so restless in love

When things we're fine, I changed my mind just because

Now I see how wrong and reckless i've been

Each frog has a prince just waiting inside of him

Baby, There goes somebody's miracle

Walking down the street

There goes some other fairy tale

I wish it could happen to me

But I look at myself, and I think what the hell

Maybe I'm just too naive

To have such faith in myself

You know I'm prayin' for it

But the queen, she likes to sit on her throne

Doesn't mean you two are never alone

It's just love has needs that love only knows

Watch a couple stay close, It's like the bloom of a rose

Baby, There goes somebody's miracle

Walking down the street

There goes some other fairy tale

I wish it could happen to me

There goes somebody's miracle

Walking down the street

There goes some other fairy tale...

I never cry out loud, I

I keep my tears to myself

But I woke up one day and I found my life had left me for someone else

I, I guess it must be unhappy with me

Baby, There goes somebody's miracle

Walking down the street

There goes some other fairy tale

I wish it could happen to me

But I look at myself

Wondering if i'm just too weak

To have such faith in myself

You know I'm prayin for it

You know I'm prayin for it

You know I'm prayin for it

MFEO (Made for each other)

Someone said that to me the other day "Oh for crying out loud, Colin and you are totally MFEO..." and I'm like "MFEO?" and he said "Yeah - made for each other."

Then I remembered the song by Kavana... :) here you go!

p/s: cheesy 90s brit pop alert :P

Kavana - MFEO

You know how I love to be with you
Girl you know that its true
We go together so good

When you touch me there
When you kiss that way
Baby you just take my breath away

When you move in close
Your skin's on mine
Don't stop, 'cos we're doin' it right

Chorus:
You've turned me around
I can't let you go
I'll make you see we're MFEO

No matter how long
It takes me to show
You've gotta believe
We're MFEO

I don't know how long I've tried to prove
That I'm the one for you
So don't play games with my mind

When you touch me there
When you kiss that way
Baby you just take my breath away

When you move in close
Feel your skin on mine
Don't stop, 'cos we're doin' it right

Repeat Chorus

Rap:
Blue skies in your eyes I see the feeling
Tell me this baby now do you get the meaning
I love you love what you wanna do love

Sure nuff sugar pie we can think it through love
Bit of this with the touch of your behavior
You can be my cutie pie 'cos you got the flavour

Straight up no lie if you never know
We will forever be M.F.E.O.

When you touch me there
When you kiss that way
Baby you just take my breath away

When you move up close
Your skin's on mine
Don't stop, 'cos we're doin' it right

Repeat chorus to fade

Shigeri Kitsu - Melody of Four Seasons

So I'm having some alone time and I'm so glad that I did! With the pup around, I barely get to go to any Japanese events because he doesn't understand the language, culture and he doesn't really enjoy the food either! Sad isn't it?

But then again I get to enjoy my own world when he gets to enjoy his worlds.

Anyways, I booked a ticket to watch Shigeri Kitsu, a minyo artiste playing live at the Dewan Sivik MBPJ. To tell you the truth, I had never heard about her before this but I'd never pass on an opportunity to experience something like this!

Being totally unfamiliar with the roads, it took me a really long time to reach the venue. I mean seriously, there were no proper signs to show where the place really was.

We were greeted by these traditionally clothed mannequins at the reception.

Don't ask me why. I really didn't see the point in it. Initially I thought that it had something to do with what she would be wearing during the performance, but nope.

We were allowed to go in and grab our seats at about slightly past 8. The arena was free seating so I was pretty lucky that I got there early, I managed to grab an aisle seat, right in front of the stage.

The night started with the Dewan Budaya's cultural dance troupe doing a contemporary number. This was also something I didn't get.

Then they did a musical performance with some traditional instruments. This was pretty good :)

Then they started to set up Shigeri-san's stage....

She emerged from the darkness of the stage and into the spotlight.

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter. This part, she hid in the corner plucking the shamisen while the slide show went on and on with lots of gorgeous winter images.

And she finished off with the drums.

Shigeri-san then dedicated a song to the quake that happened in Japan this year. It was upsetting to see so many lives, especially those of the fishing communities, wiped out. Just. Like. That.

Then she played a few more traditional numbers.

This... by far... was her best performance the entire night IMHO. There was so much vigour, control and passion in this.

Look at her go!!!!

Towards the end of her last song, the local musical troup troops out clapping in tune to the rhythm...

Then we realized that there was a surprise for her! I didn't manage to catch the first slide which said "Today is her birthday."

And they pushed a cake out from the side :)

Me and Shigeri Kitsu.

The performance was amazing. The vocal control and dedication she has in perfecting her craft is really incredible.

But to be honest, after a while, it got a little boring - partly because it was a one (wo)man show but kudos to her for a fantastic performance!