Have you got a personal website? Well, thanks to those nice Arachnid people, I do, and was just wondering if you suffered from the same afflictions as I…
For instance, do you monitor your page view statistics like a hawk? Or do you wonder how that visitor from Iceland managed to stumble his/her way onto your little patch of cyberspace? See, I do. Ever since my site has gone ‘live’, I find myself scanning my web stats like some bloodhound. I check it in the morning and hope fervently that the current record for most visitors per day will be smashed to bits by nightfall. By mid day, I log on to the site to get a mental picture of where in the world the various visitors come from. Then I check on it again before I go to bed – always careful to include my wish for a massive hit rate when I speak to the almighty, albeit rarely and only when no one is looking. It’s like an addiction. Hell, I even woke up in the middle of the night to check on it once. I think I need a doctor.
But it is not as pathetic as it sounds. Really. I mean, most of the time, it’s like watching paint dry – but sometimes interesting things do pop up. Like last Sunday. I was recovering from a hangover (of which more anon) and was hanging around the visitor stats counter. Now, the service I subscribe to (Nedstats) is really neat – other than letting you know how many visitors have visited your site in real time, it also lets you know cool things like ‘how did they come to your site?’ (i.e. from which link?). So anyway, I was looking at the ‘how?’ page when I spotted a visitor coming from a new link in Malaysia. I followed the link and landed on a journal-based personal website belonging to a 15 year old girl who’s bought my record and had some good things to say about it. Her name is Emily T. Now, it’s pretty obvious Emily is a precocious teenager. She writes really well and oozes character even on a page. I mean, anyone who describes herself as ‘that no-life girl’ deserves a further look. So I did. I clicked my way through her site, had a good time reading her online journal, and signed on her guest book before I left.
Voyeurism, did I hear you say? Well, may be. But you know, I think it is also that I am fascinated with people who express themselves, and Emily is a particularly precocious example. I mean, I’ve always had a massively cavernous mouth (yappy enough to put many pairs of shoes in) and when I gave up writing creatively for about 5 years in the 90’s, I was so unhappy it wasn’t funny. Apart serving as the deconstructed reality behind the verbosity of which I am justly notorious, it also explains why I am so interested in people with a thing or two to say. To be honest, I am often completely uninterested in what is being said – just the act of expressing something seems such a victory for me…
Uh huh. Here he goes again. Another pointless tirade on something or other. If it’s not Tequila then it is lucky shoes. Nonsense upon stilts.
Actually, not quite all nonsense. I swear I had a point when I began. What is it again? Gimme a moment.
Blink.
Ah, that’s it. The Actors Studio.
You must have heard by now that Actors Studio at Dataran Merdeka was flooded last week. For those of you not familiar with the independent Malaysian arts scene, the Actors Studio is such a important place that saying it is anything other than ‘pivotal’ seems trivial. I have personally only done one gig at the ‘Box’, but I do feel sufficiently an integral part of the scene to feel a sense of loss for the incident last week. It was such I went down to Dataran Merdeka Saturday afternoon to help out. The scene that greeted me was, frankly, astonishing. In short, it was a mess. The floor was caked up with mud and the water mark on the walls was as high as 8 foot in places. Loads of volunteers were there before me, helping with moving stuff out of the basement location. I spoke with a few friends who work there – apparently, the flash flood rose so quickly (in matter of minutes) to man-height that it was a minor miracle that no one was killed. It took two days for the water to drain, and when it had done so, most of the sound and light equipment had been destroyed. As if that wasn’t enough, some of Actors Studio’s staff lost cars to flood damage (which isn’t covered by normal motor insurance) and the management has decided to permanently vacate the place.
Now, I don’t know if I have mentioned this to you before, but one of the most difficult things about being an performance artist in Malaysia is simply the scarcity of venues to exhibit your art. The fact that I was lucky to have a venue like No Black Tie to host my events does not detract from the fact that Actors Studio was the de facto central venue to much of what has steadily evolved into a vibrant independent arts scene in KL – a scene which rivals anything that the region can offer, and a scene we can be justly proud…
“Oh Damn! With the lost of the Dataran venue, what will happen now?” I hear you interrupt.
Well, I honestly don’t know. If the authorities has even an iota of fondness for our budding arts scene, then perhaps they will reach out and offer some aid – but that is, I’m afraid, a forlorn hope. You see, our bureaucrats have a habit of interpreting ‘arts & culture’ as something for the package tourists only – and I am afraid the low budget grunginess of many of our independent arts productions (and the lack of tropical holiday brochure sensibilities) simply do not qualify for favoured treatment. So I guess it is up to the independent arts community and it’s supporters to ensure that what had been hard fought doesn’t just whittle away because of a bloody flood. At the time of writing, I believing folks are still busy moving salvaged property to a safer location. I know for a fact that any help (volunteer labour, monetary donations etc) is welcomed. So please help out if you can.
Anyway, and so I was down at Dataran on Saturday afternoon. I helped a little with ferrying stuff out of the mud, but had to leave by 4.30pm because I had to be at sound-check for Songwriters’ Round 9. I arrived at NBT caked with mud and found Shanon waiting – we had a drink by a road-side store and waited for the rest, all of whom arrived 30 minutes later. Sound-check was kind of odd this week because Jamie, Julian and Meor all had to leave quickly and so we didn’t do the communal dinner routine that has been so much a part of the Songwriters’ Round experience. Instead, Shanon and I trotted off and had some pasta, just by our lonesome selves.
And what of the show itself? Well, apart from starting very late on account of the fact that Julian only managed to tear himself away from his new born baby at 10pm, it went well. Once again, we had a packed house – over 120 people – all enthralled by four performers on good form. Jamie showed us why he is one of the most in-demand session guitarists in Asia by playing the skins off the fingerboard on his weird guitar when he wasn’t singing acoustic rock ballads; Julian carted out some amazing blues licks and even imitated the sitar for the finale; Meor artistically strummed and mumbled his way through his folk-infused repertoire; and Shanon, well, he did what he did he last two time he played at the Round – which is – stole the show. He charmed and stomped his way through songs about love, Star Wars, and other brilliantly crafted numbers in that broadway manner of his – and the crowd absolutely loved it. And no wonder – there was good competent piano playing and absolutely engaging voice and words. And when the room settled into quiet as the second set of the Round seems always to induce, Shanon oozed class. As I have said a few times before – this guy is brilliant.
Now, I hope I am not breaching some career threatening secret, but Pony Canyon came down to the show especially to look Shanon over. As was expected, they left well satisfied. And get this – I believe they have offered Shanon a record deal since last Saturday. Wonderful. Okay, I have no idea whether Shanon will take up the deal, but here’s my best wishes to him anyway. I long for the day when Shanon comes back to play the Round as a household name. What a rush that would be! Hell, may be he’d even buy me a drink then. Ha. Anyway, there you have it – we now have one of our best talents ‘discovered’ by a major label right in the heart of grungy indie land. So don’t you ever say we are just a horse and pony show no more. Hmph.
Hm? You noticed that I sorta rushed through the review of the billed acts, didn’t you? Yeah yeah, I’ll admit it. But there is a good reason for that, and the reason is this – the open mic portion of Round 9 was brilliant. Okay, so we’ve always had a great time during the open mic portion of the show – but I honestly can’t remember such high quality performers coming up as it was last Saturday night. First, Evelyn the owner of NBT overcame months of perfectionist stage fright and treated us to two classical piano pieces. Then Neverklever breezed through their two songs accompanied by dobro and percussion. Fun boppy stuff. The crowd warmed. This was turning out to be a brilliant open mic session. Others soon joined the fray – Tim, a really funny deejay at Wow FM did a song on traffic jams haltingly but bravely. Then Zarul the harp player did two songs, one a funky little number that went on for ages. Then Jerome sang with haunting and weird beauty the way that only he can manage. Then Mia Pelancia came up and did three numbers with that amazing voice of hers. Hell, even I got hauled up and sang some stuff in the end. Okay, I coughed my way through everything – but they cheered anyway – such nice people…
But the surprise package of the night was without a doubt Albert and Edwin. Now, Albert has been corresponding with me for months – always saying really encouraging things about my attempt to release a record by myself – but I didn’t know he is a musician until Saturday. Hell, whatever it was, I certainly did not expect him to be a part of a duo that is so filled with freshness and fun. The duo’s music can best be described as bubble gum / sunshine / Mandarin pop – like a bilingual version of the Beach Boys. They also sang in the sweetest harmony, backed by a couple of super tight and well greased acoustic guitars, and showed absolutely no fear. It was a joy to see them. Honestly. Everyone in the room thought the same as me. As a result, the packed house asked for an encore – the first ever open mic encore at the Round. Anyway, the long and short of it? I absolutely love what they do, and will bill them for Round 10. If you fancy catching a slice of their absolutely infectious sound, make sure you come to the next Round. Personally, I can’t wait. They’ll be a blast. Just thinking about it is putting a smile on my face. Whoever said singer songwriters are a bunch of angsty constipated manic depressives? Well, whoever you are, you can eat your hat now. Ha.
And so it was I got dead pissed again on Tequila after the show. My excuse? I was tired and fell victim far easier than I normally do. I am also blaming it on two lovely oil drilling engineers and a bunch of drunken and amorous ‘sisters’ for inciting riot. Still, the good thing about getting pissed is that when I got home, I slept like a baby with those Beach Boys harmony ringing brightly in my head. What a relief too. It had once again been a wonderful show. It had everything – instrumental virtuosity, angst, broadway and bubble gum. And of course, it also had a great audience. I wanna especially thank those of you who contributed so generously to the collection box for Actors Studio (we collected over RM400). I would also like to thank those of you who wrote in to say nice things about the show. Oh, and also those who newly joined the list (welcome!). THANK YOU.
Anyway, the bad thing about getting pissed is the hangover. Like Sunday morning. But a splitting head didn’t stop me from checking my visitors stats. Which led me to Emily’s site. ‘Wow’, I thought, ‘here’s another one who feels the need to express’ – just like all those who perform at the Actors Studio, or those who make art for the hell of it, or those who charmed us at the Round. So I read on and dropped Emily a note when I was done. Then, a day later, I got a reply from Emily thanking me for reading her site. Well, thank you Miss Emily T, it was my pleasure entirely. And don’t let no one tell you otherwise. Keep spewing. No reason. Just because you love it. Yep.
Smirk.
So. Another week, another show. Thank God for folks who facilitate our expressions, and for people who express themselves – and through their expressions, enrich our lives. Most of all, thank God for folks who do what they do for the love of it. Precocious little ones, grungy rebels, angst merchants, verbose spammers, or sunshine pop peddlers. I don’t care. It’s all good.
Ahhh, such sentimentality. Must be the heat. I’m gonna go lie down now.