August 21, 2006 - Yamaha L-series workshop and promo

Last day!!! We're now in Johor, arrived late last night. This morning, I tell my boss, "Boss, ah, I don't want to push it. I just want to sleep in (and miss your 10:30am workshop)." Boss Roger says OK. So I sleep in while Roger is off to the last workshop of this tour. He's back in the room by 1:30pm and JSPA members ask us to join them for beef noodle lunch. Just in time too because I was hungry. Yum.

We meet Paul (Augustin), Farid (Ali) and his band after lunch and together with JSPA, we all drive to the Diamond Jubilee Hall again where Farid and band set up. I realise now how much more work setting up for a band of five is to say ... Double Take where there's just one vocalist and one guitarist. See picture?

By 4pm, though, it was time for us to head off to the airport - again. This time, destination - home. I've never felt this glad to go home. The trip was very productive, we made new friends, I had great food but for the first time since we travelled together, I'm glad to be heading home. This was an extraordinarily tiring trip. Plus, we didn't go any Hotspots so again, no updating of the blog till I get home.

August 20, 2006 - Yamaha Guitar Camp and Festival 2006

Today, we head for the Yamaha Music Headquarters in Kelana Jaya where Roger conducts a one-hour workshop at 11:30pm. Lots of people at the workshop, covering most age, sex and job range. There are some kids, who upon Roger's prompting, leave their seats to sit on the floor closer to stage to have a better look.

One kid in particular, this kid in orange shirt, Ian, 9. He's the one bent over his guitar, in the middle of that front row, see? At first, he's sitting - oh, ten feet away. As minutes pass, he's inching forward. By the end of the workshop, he's kneeling forward, against the front of the stage and his arms are right up ON stage, his chin propped up. Cute!

Here at this guitar workshop, everyone comes equipped with their guitar. So when Roger makes a point, all of them pick up their guitar at the same time and start twanging. It sounds rather like military school, where everyone picks up his/her arms at the same time. Or at an examination hall where the invigilator says, OK, you can turn over the paper now. Swissssssh, same movement, everyone, same time.

By now, however, both of us are feeling a little under the weather, after the previous week of travelling up and down the peninsula. Roger, thankfully, felt a lot better after he popped in two cold Panadols and took a short nap in the conference room. Just in time to be one of the judges at the festival that started a little behind schedule.

Here we are, two weary old souls, ready to go home and catch up on zzzzzs. But we still had a competition to judge, a 10-minute gig to perform and a 9pm flight to catch!

We have to be out of Yamaha by 6:30pm, Roger told the organisers. And try as they may, it is impossible for the schedule to catch up. So Roger and I, with help from the friendly Yamaha chaps, end up rushing madly to pack the equipment into a waiting cab at 7:10pm. Just for the record, we made it to the airport in good time but it was waaaaaay to close for Roger's comfort. Just one more day, I told myself....one more day, Claude.... you can do it.....

August 19, 2006 - Yamaha L-series workshop and promo
Today, Roger conducts a workshop at KL Plaza's Yamaha store. There was a father and two sons there. According to Yamaha staff, they've been there since 1:30pm. The 3pm workshop, unfortunately, started at 3:20pm so technically, they'd been waiting for almost two hours! Poor souls. But they got to take pictures and talk to Roger at the end of the day so I hope it was a worthy wait for them. See the picture below? They're the ones in the front row.

By 3:40pm, the store is packed with people and more are still strolling in. Rog notes that there's a larger variety of people attending the workshops nowadays. It used to attract just finger-style enthusiasts but now, he sees electric-guitar players too. Maybe they want to learn new techniques? Either way, he's always happy to share.

For dinner, Yamaha's Ravin and Jackie bring us to ... oh dear, what's the name of that Indian restaurant near KL Plaza? Spice something....? We had Northern Indian and once again, I was bursting at the seams after dinner. I lurvvvvvve garlic naan. Wasn't crazy about that candy bits they gave in the end, tasted like licorice.

August 18, 2006 - Yamaha L-series promo and workshop

You're wondering - what's happened to the 17th? Did she forget? No, la. But I was too tired to tag along to the Melawati workshop and had opted to sleep in at the hotel instead.

Today, we're in Penang. I really like Penang. I like Penang for its food, for its old shoplots, for the giant trees and while locals bitch about how dirty Penang is, I'm afraid I don't see it. Maybe it's because I'm from Sabah (eeks!) but I'm told (by Penangnites) that Penang is dirtier than KK any day. OK, la, Penang win, la but no, I don't see the trash. I don't see rats. I see glorious food, I see the culture, I see the delightful trishaws that Roger refuses to get on. So touristy, he said. We tourist, mah! I'd protest.

Anyway, the workshop sees pretty good attendance. And five minutes into the workshop, it hits me. This is the first time I'm sitting in on a workshop my husband's conducted. How strange! We've known each other for three years now and I often hear about his workshops but I've never sat in. And I must say, Roger's a good trainer. His workshops are very informative and I'm not lying here just because we're married, but I learnt a lot from his workshops. And while I still am not musically-inclined, I can almost tell you how to work a guitar.
ANYONE remotely interested in playing the guitar; either acoustic, classic or electric, must not miss Roger's workshops if he's giving one in a town / city near you! Really. The chap's willing the share it with you and I say, if it's free, all the better!

Post-workshop, Penang's Yamaha dealers, our new friends, bring us out for dinner. And in Penang, it's never dinner at just one place nor it is never just one dish (typically, we'd order several dishes and everyone picks from various plates. I know some people who are squirmish about that. Your loss! I say). We eat seafood in one restaurant, Bali Hai, and proceed down to Gurney Drive's newly-renovated stalls for dessert. I was so full (from dinner), I wanted to cry. Food in Penang is THAT good! Just thinking about food in Penang makes me hungry now. See shells there on the right, from Bali Hai? I don't know what it's called but they were nice!

August 16, 2006 - 3rd Annual Johor Arts Festival

The day starts with the free workshop for concert ticket holders. Conducted by Roger, the workshop's at 11am and Roger talks to the participants about finger-style techniques, tricks, etc. When JSPA President comes along later and asks Roger how many people attended the workshop at the Diamond Jubilee Hall, Roger replies, "A few guys and a cockroach."

Evidently, a guitar-playing cockroach. A finger-style guitar-roach. It had inadvertently crawled in from ... somewhere in the hall, to check out the workshop. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of roach but here's a picture of the workshop.

This year, Double Take's performing at the Fest and Mia arrives that afternoon. It's Double Take's first concert in Johor and I must say, the response is wonderful. Immediately after the concert, there's already talk about bringing them back to Johor.

I like Johor. Them JSPA (Johor Society for Performing Arts) members are true Asian hosts, they understand that a big part of hosting is about good food and I can so totally relate to that! Plus, it's always inspiring to mee them and see how far they've gone. Roger and I have been here three times already and each time, we see them make more progress with their unending and sometimes thankless task of promoting arts. Basically, arts promotion is hard work anywhere so seeing them progress is always very gratifying for us.

August 13 - 15, 2006
The next seven days are going to be pretty rough. First, we have the 3rd Johor Arts Festival. Then, we'll leave Johor for KL where we start the first lag of the Yamaha workshops and promo tour. After KL, we'll head up north to Penang, then down to KL and finally, in Johor again.

We knew it would be pretty gruesome so we had a pre-tour holiday. We took the bus shuttle from Johor's Senai Airport (nice airport, by the way) and that brought us to the Kotaraya Bus Terminal where we caught a cab that brought us all the way to our hotel in Singapore. Cost us about S$35. See Roger looking out of the bus window?This trip to Singapore favoured Roger a lot. Since I was there just a month ago and I had eaten and seen most everything I had wanted then, we went to lots of music stores this time. And to Sim Lim Square. The best thing about this trip (besides meeting old friends) was the Yamaha Magic Stomp Acoustic.

It's not available for sale here in Malaysia yet and we actually had to hunt down this unit here in Singapore (going from shopping mall to shopping mall) because it was the last one left on the island. The last unit left in this entire Asean region. Kid you not! But long story short, we got it! And Roger's pretty darn happy with this latest toy. It's times like these that you can stick him in the room for hours on end because he'll be totally engrossed with his new toy.

What I read during the Equatorial gig
Reading's nice. I especially like reading brand new books. Which is why I bought a new book the other day. Even with the seven new second-hand books I got from my mom-in-law's friend. I couldn't help it. I tried soooo hard to stop myself from buying more books but this one just called out to me.
1. Marley & Me (John Grogan) - check out the cover on amazon.com and you might understand why I bought this boo. Luckily, the writing was just as good.
2. Envy (Sandra Brown) - now that I've finished reading Marley & Me, I'm going to continue reading this.

You'll see a new link on this page. It's Ernie's blog and my friends told me about this last year. I get a huge kick whenever I read his entries and I thought I'd share it with you.

Wrapping Up Equatorial Hotel's Summer Jazz Series II gig
The gig starts at about 9:45pm every evening from July 26 -29 and ends about 12:30am or 1:30am. And every single night, without fail, Donald Lim and Chris Moore (of Equatorial Hotel) are there with friends or family, watching the show. Even *I* didn't watch the show every night. What? Got headache, what.

Anyway, kudos to Equatorial for taking real good care of me and Roger. From airport pickup to laundry, from meals to WiFi access, they're all hugely appreciated. Always a pleasure.

For all those who came to the shows, I think you've made Roger really happy. He's a natural showman, he enjoys the stage and he enjoys performing for a good audience. Most of all, he really enjoys playing his guitar. Thanks for your support.

Gawd, isn't this starting to sound like an Oscar speech?! Sorry.

We met lots of our friends when we came back to KL this time. Always a pleasure. Among them were Ahmad Azrai (who's better known to us as 'Roy') who works at The Malay Mail and Brian Kwan from alldatjazz.com.

Now, before you see this picture, I've got to explain it to you. Roy (whom we've earlier established, works at The Malay Mail) recently wrote about spam. No, not of the non-halal edible variety. Email spam. He looked through all the spam subjects and wrote full page article about it. Accompanying the article was a full-page, full-colour picture of his face, superimposed on a computer monitor on top of a desk. He's holding up a sign that reads, "Big Sale" and he's holding his thumb up. Also in that picture is a woman sitting at the desk, with her face turned away from the monitor, in utter distaste. It's the kind of face I'd have if I had stepped on crap.

Roy shows us the newspaper clipping during lunch with me, Roger and Brian. I find his face in the picture really funny, I asked him to "do it again". He complies. I break into shrieks of laughter because it's so funny. Minutes later, I'm thinking, I really NEED to take a picture of that. It's worth a million (laughs), I tell you.

So I asked the boys to pose, right there, in front of the first floor escalators at KLCC. Brian's mortified, "We look like bloody tourists!" but Roy already posing - happily. I snapped this picture in less than a second.


Miraculously, Roy manages to look even "goofier" here than in the picture taken for the newspapers!

Day Four (Last Day) - July 29
Today, we sleep in till 12 noon.

The early-to-bed-rise-early-for-exercise routine that we had established back home has gone bust. Well, it was good while it lasted - all seven days of it. Last night, Roger finally drifted off to sleep at about 3:30am. He was still highly-strung from the knock-you-off-the-floor gig last night. It is as hard for him to calm down after a good gig as it is for a kid who's been playing and laughing madly in the playground for an hour.

After a quick visit to Farid's, we meet Roger's friends from his old music college, Ocean, for dinner tonight. Nice bunch of people. They decide to stay for the show too.

.... dang. I hate it when this happens. When I have a "I wish I had taken a picture of them together" moment. Dang. That picture would go perfectly here, won't it?

After dinner, though, I told my boss / husband / partner, "I've got a headache, honey. I need to go to bed." It's true. One of them killer migraines. The kind that can render you officially dead. The kind that you got to nip in the bu*t early and crawl to bed before it blows your brain away. So I can't tell you much about the gig tonight.

Sorry.

August 15, 2006 -
eve of 3rd Annual Johor Arts Festival

The night before the concert, core members of the Johor Society for Performing Arts, organisers of the festival, bring us out for dinner at this famous Johor restaurant, Hak Seng. While Hak Seng is famous for the Teochew dishes, it's the restaurant owner that takes the limelight. (see him in white tee-shirt, sitting next to Roger) He's got an article up on his wall, headlines screaming "Loud mouth Hak Seng".

Truly, this man's quite a character. He sits down at the table with you while he takes your order, like he's part of your group. He tells you - not recommends - what to order and when he sees that you've ordered enough, he'd tell you so. "Enough," he'd declare before getting up huffily. Dude shuffles off to place your order in the kitchen. I'm told he'd tick you off for not finishing your dinner (that got me quite nervous) and he's got no problems telling customers to bugger off if he feels they've had enough to drink.

To top it all off, the man walks around his restaurant barefoot.

Day Three - July 28
When Roger jams with a guitarist he can particularly relate with, the effect is powerful. I've seen it happen a few times and this was one of them.

I don't play any musical instruments (you won't believe how many people have asked me that since I got married!) And no, I don't even sing. To be more precise, I won't sing - for the sanity of all those within earshot.

But when I see Roger hit it off with another guitarist, my heart soars and I feel exactly like how I imagine he's feeling.... totally lost in the music. When there's right chemistry between two guitarists onstage, the effect is simply electrifying! It gives me goosebumps.

Tonight was a night just like that. The energy both Roger and Jamie Wilson (whom he's never met prior to the show, by the way, not even for a practice run) produced that night with just their humble six-stringed instrument vibrated off the walls and got me right in the thumper. It was truly exciting.

The audience refused to let Jamie Wilson offstage that night. He was supposed to play three songs during the second set but the audience made sure he didn't leave the stage till the end of the night. The second set lasted a record hour and half (usually, it's 45 minutes). Roger's fingers hurt - hurt good - that night.

It was wild! It was insane. It was so goooooooooood.....

Equatorial Hotel, KL, General Manager Donald Lim dubs Roger, Mia and Jamie, "Triple Take".

You missed it? Ouch.

Day Two - July 27
In the morning, we sleep in.

In the afternoon, Roger goes off to Farid's place where they work on their upcoming album. I step into KLCC for the first time this month. I stay there and wait for Roger to meet me here for dinner. I window-shop but my legs grow weary and window displays got boring.

I try to think of something to do that's (1) cheap, (2) lets my legs rest, (3) doesn't involve much brain-work. I buy a ticket and watch "The Lake House".

All by myself! RM8 well-spent, I say. I got the rest I needed, the seat was comfortable enough. As an added bonus, the movie ended just as Roger boarded the train bound for KLCC. Perfect timing. (The movie, by the way, was OK. Surreal but I guess that's why it's romantic. Keanu Reeves.....sigh........)

Tonight, Llew Marsh (are you absolutely sure this is how I spell his name, sayang?) joins Roger and Mia onstage. The man has fingers that dance across the ivories. Sweet. (Photo courtesy of alldatjazz.com, by the way. Thanks, Brian!)

I stand at the back of Flo, watching Roger. Oh, no. Watching the show, I mean. Watching the shooooow. The crowd makes him sing again. They made him sing last night and he obliged. Looks like he's going to do it again tonight. Sucker! But everyone loves "Would You Like to Play the Guitar or Would You Rather Get a Job" song.

I'd like to clarify once and for all: the song suggests that a guitar player's wife is either a saint or she's nuts. I'm the latter. In fact, I'm the Mother of all guitar players' crazy wives. I quit my job!

I know I was supposed to write about Double Take's Equatorial Hotel gig day by day. In fact, in my head, I take pictures in the morning and/or evening and by night, write the account in this blog. In my head, everything is on time. In my head, I'm laughing at my own jokes as I write the posts.

It didn't happen.

Why? Can I blame it on Roger's new MacBook? "I don't know how to use a Mac". "Why did Steve Job go make them close window command on the left instead of the right?" "How do I right click, sayang?" MAY I blame it on the new notebook?

While Roger is delighted with Mac and all its possibilities (he's an enthusiastic Switcher), I'm frowning and pouting in front of this impossibly-white techno la-la. I'm too impatient with it so I move on. I read books instead. I read magazines. I paint my toenails. I don't update this blog till I get home.

Better luck next time, Steve! You won't make a convert out of me - yet.