Michael Buble in concert

A late post...

The banner announcing the concert was up a day before

Michael Buble came to Malaysia, performed and captured the hearts of his fans (mostly women) with his performance on 13th March 2011. I was there, I enjoyed it and I think he did managed to connect with his fans on a different level than a few other artistes I have attended their concert before. And this was on a rainy night and at a venue rarely used as a concert venue in Malaysia (though very much near my own house)

Only a fan like my wife would want a picture with his poster even in the rain

Expensive concert t-shirts anyone?

The first I heard of him is when he was to release his first album and the joke was on how to pronounce his name. Buble? Bubble? I even got his first album for free in some obscure press conference which I actually forgot as soon as I attended it. That was either in 2002 or 2003. As I said, I only remember it obscurely...

The lighting was amazing

At the concert that day, he walked from one end of the stage to the other end, he tried to reach a few of the fans sitting in front, he comes down from the stage and walk to a mini stage at the centre of the hall. When he introduced his band, he named the band-member and then he make jokes, while explaining how and why that particular person is on the band. He then let the band play a jamming session. His band is like the big band of old. 

He was up there....

...then he was down there

The opening act of Najwa is also a good one and although it was raining that night, the hall was totally full. Michael Buble also announced that he will take a break after the concert and as he is already engaged, rumor has it that he will be married soon.

He was at this stage...

...then he walked to this smaller stage

All the best to him either on being a married man and on his musical journey....

Women : 100 - 100 years celebration of International Women's Day

This weekend is the final weekend for the celebration of Women : 100. An initiative by the newly revamped Kakiseni.com. Kakiseni is now led by Low Ngai Yuen who is of the 3R fame but now turn film director and activist, especially any initiative geared towards women empowerment.

Ngai Yuen (in the jeans jacket) meeting the celebrities

The Women : 100 celebration is a 100 hours celebration of performing arts (among others) and there is only less than 48 hours left. I think it is a good initiatives which reached out to a lot of people and they are currently being held in a few places around like the Annexe Gallery, Celebrities Club and The Actors Studio on the rooftop of Lot 10.

Calista and Nadia ready to bang some pots

They are also organising flashmobs which has dancing and like last week the one that I participate with Nadia Heng, the current Miss World/Malaysia. We were at Pavilion and we banged pots and pans to a percussion sounds to show that cutlery are not to be used for violence against women.

The celebrities that day

Chelsia Ng being interviewed

Check out Women : 100 Facebook page on what has been done and what will this weekend has to offer. I was told the final one involves some stripping. And go participate. You will have a great time and be changed of your perception about women. Even if you can't find the time, please read all the activities they have done and why they did them.

The social media team : Harinder, Kal and Callista

The Ugly Truth about men and women

Yep, you have guessed it. This is about that movie starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. In which they proved the real facts about men and women. Butler as another Cyrano (as in de Begerac) and Heigl as the one who follows the instruction of a man she hates that she was willing to do what he asked as long as he get lost if she managed to get her man using his help.

Then they fell in love...

As always.

However, if you go to this site by Adverlets, Malaysia's internet advertising company, you can win tickets to go to the premiere screening of the movie. Take the test to determine whether you are really a man or a woman. The link is here - The Ugly Truth Quiz.

I took it and here is my result :

In short, it is a confirmed thing that I am a dude when it comes to dating. I think some of those whom I tried to date will even say I am a playerz but I will deny that.

Gaydar, a tool...

I learnt of this term when my wife and I were following L Words which is basically about the homosexual community in Los Angeles.

I have a few gay friends in Kuala Lumpur, which may not be as open with others and one of the topic which they usually brought up is the issue of identifying those who are gay. Of course, in a conservative country like Malaysia, being gay is a no, no. But they are around and in a modern city like Kuala Lumpur, it is not that surprising.

Like what Jack of 30 Rocks once said, "He is not just powerful, he is gay...", meaning to say, some of those who are powerful are gay and there are certain business where they have cornered the market.

Back to my friend. He is always hoping for signals to know the availability and the sexual preference of those he fancy. Some do respond and some brush him off.

And yes, even in Malaysia, the issue of "Where have all the good men go?" do play a part in the dating scene. Much like Sex and the City...

Romantic movie vs. Chick flick

Is there any different between these two type of movies? I believe there are differences. 

Romantic movie is where you will fell the need to stay quiet the whole movie, get the feeling of love sweeping over you and you can relate to what happened to the hero and heroine on screen. There are tragedy, there are trials and tribulations. There are protagonist and antagonist. There are plots, sub-plots and twist enough for you to dance with. They are also known to be from literature. Think The English Patient (my favorite). Sense and Sensibility. Emma et. al.

As for chick flick, it is a new genre. Ever since there were chick lit, which are people writing on a lark and in an easygoing manner. Where their writings border between literature and pop-culture. Where they still sell their books in millions and celebrated as the new "Jane Austen". Where these books are then made into movies. Some are straightforward. Some are "based upon".

Some are just movies but the ideas came from these type of books. These can be seen in The Proposal. The Ghost of Girlfriends Past (Dickens turning in his grave). 10 Things I Hate about You (Shakespeare anyone?). Oh, it seems that these chick flick also has the ideas coming from books. But with a twist.

To me, nowadays, you can't really differentiate movies that fall as a romantic movie or a chick flick base on which medium it is adapted from. Some are movies which are just there as fillers although there are big names headlining them. Some are real movie which makes people think. 

Give me the latter anyday of the week. But, that is just me.

My guilty pleasure : The Sweetest Thing

I have this film which I cannot resist to sit down and enjoy, everytime it is shown on the television. I mean, if I suddenly found it while I channel-surf, I will at least enjoy a few minutes of it or if I know there are nothing else to watch, I will be watching it thoroughly.

The film : The Sweetest Thing, which had starred Christina Applegate, Selma Blair and the affable Cameron Diaz acting in it.

The story : About 3 single girls, where most of the film is on the characters played by Applegate and Diaz living the single party girls life in a big city until one day Diaz met a guy played by Thomas Jane. He split before she could connect with her and they went on a road trip to get the guy before finding out they arrived in the small town where the guy lives that the guy is going to get married. As they turned the marriage ceremony topsy turvy, Diaz decided to abandon her mission and goes back. That is until the guy came looking for her. 

A simple story but the frankness of how girls sometimes do things that you wouldn't see in public. Sending the dress which had questionable stains (in this case, it was sperm) to laundry. Wearing goofy type of underwears. Drinking until they get sick. Experimental sexual experience. All these and then some. The main story was just so and so, but the ancillary storylines were interesting in themselves. Selma Blair was supposed to have the small part but her scenes which really are scene stealers. What Applegate and Diaz discovered when they came back from looking for the guy was hilarious. 

It involved a well-endowed man, a whole emergency unit and some singing. That was the part where I will be laughing like crazy. 

Some guilty pleasure just make my day. 

What's yours?

My eye is up here...

Men are always attracted to what is curvy on a woman and one of the things that they can't resist is a woman who have all the right curves in front of her. I have mentioned about this once in my posting but curvaceous women tend to attract attention, no matter her looks, her clothes or even whether she is sane or not. 

I mean, of course, it does not mean all men will suddenly go mad or start chasing her like a scene from a movie, but the roving eyes will suddenly focus their attention on the chest region. 

I think it is more of an instinct problem than just an attraction. Whenever men try to hide the fact they are looking, they will inadvertably look down and when they see the two globes which is naturally there, they will linger there a bit longer. At the risk of being caught looking.

And I myself would not be a straight man if I don't indulge in it occasionally. At the risk of being stared at by the woman and being given the look that says "Can't you look at me while I am talking and not my breast?".

Women like to hide their intelligent by being blonde sometimes

The 'in' word in between my wife and her friends, and even between my partners who are all ladies is "My blonde moment" to show that sometimes they acted in certain ways just to get what they can by doing just that. And as the name suggested, with apologies to all the intelligent blonde around the world, it is by acting dumb and giggly and all those things that one associates with bimbo. And they do get what they want when they do this.

The problem with me is, I am surrounded by women in my life. From my wife to an office full of women ranging from the school leavers, attachment students, interns, clerks and my partners. In an office of 20 people, there are 4 other men but only one stays in the office all day as the other three are always working in the field. That leave me having to deal with women wiles all day long.

My wife has been out of the equation long ago and she only get her ways when I let him be. As a husband, of course you let her twist you around her finger. What are husbands for, right?

As for my partners, as all decisions that we make are business decisions which may affect our livelihood and even tip the economic scale for the better or worse, that is where everyone knows, if a decision has to be made, I am equal to be the occasional uncooperative boss who just wants things done without caring whether it was going to lead someone to go crying later or hates me for making the decision.

As a boss of nearly 10 years, I have never let any one of my staff to be too 'friendly' or any incident happens which border to the word 'scandal'. It did happen once among the staff but that was considered a one time incident.

In short, women do act as if they are dumb sometimes just to get away with something. Out of being summoned for traffic offence. Batting eyelids to jump queue. Asking strangers to help them change tyres. But in my view, society has wisen up as women themselves have asked to be treated the same. And that is where the game is played on equal footing at times unless it is played by players who never know there are such a rule...

Those coupons book

I have a car which have a certain type of membership and with it there is certain times of the year where I will receive coupon books for me to get discount on certain things like clothes and such. The same goes when I have these credit cards which supposedly give of points for every penny I spend on any of the purchase which I use these cards on. Usually the points can be converted into items which sometimes are useful around the house or if you are a big spender you can even buy handphones and such with these points.

I actually are too lazy to take these coupons around and even if did have it in my briefcase, being a man, we are more of an impulse buyer than women. We buy things when we think we need it. This is one big different between women and men. Women are willing to wait for sales and deal with crowds and such whilst men will just buy whenever they feel like it.

That is why, I suggest the women in North America who think they want to save on their purchase to bu 2009 Entertainment Book which can help them save at any time. They can save on dining, shopping and even travel. Their main retailers are Best Buy, Target and Home Depot. It is specific to wear you live. It has coupons, membership cards and even more printable coupons. And the price is also attractive with free shipping. During this

I know my wife would love one if it applies here in Malaysia. We do have those coupons from a company which owns boutique like Chloe, Hugo Boss and a few others. I do need a new pair of shoes.

Maybe we will utilise it this weekend.

Feared Drivers (Mother in the Morning)

One of the time which I feared for my life when I drive is when I had to go out early and I have to pass schools. This is where you can find one of the most feared drivers in Malaysia. Mothers who have more than one child trying to drop their children to school while trying to get to work.

They will do it in one fluid motion and methodically. Drive out of their driveway and hope to not hot anyone. Drive as fast as possible to the first school. Hold hand of the child to the school gate or if he or she is old enough, they will alight from the car and maybe, even before the door is properly closed, the car will shoot of to school no. 2 or the babysitter.

Then, if the mother is a career woman, without having one strand of hair out of place, they will arrive at their office or wherever they have to meet anyone.

If they did not have had the time, they can still apply make-up, all the while driving. Driving very fast, I might add.

And they can asked us to not to text or check our emails on our Blackberry while driving.

He is just not that into you : a review

I wanted to watch this movie because I saw the trailer with Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly and Jennifer Aniston and thought to myself, wow, this movie must be serious. I mean, a chick flick which has just a hint of comedy that try to get the message to the masses about how NOT to act when you are dating.

Boy, was I wrong. I should have known when I saw Drew Barrymore. She is a producer nowadays, if you don't know. And being producer (think Tom Cruise) you will try to make the story appeal to you. Thank God that she did not try to get into every frame like that OTHER producer but I should have known the word 'cute' will be all over the movie or maybe more like the word, cliche is better to define the movie. But, if a word can sum up the reaction of the moviegoers in that theatre that day, which was full of expatriates, for some reason or another (maybe the theater was in the middle of Kuala Lumpur at its affluent shopping district), the word is CRINGE...

The movie makes you cringe when all the mistakes that you ever done in dating are shown to you under the microscope. I never read the novel which seems to be written by a man and a woman. Maybe they know how the dating game is played. Interspersed with real life interviews but ended with all the movie couples (and singles) at the end of the movie, it does give you realism but the trying to hard to make things go better still make the movie a bit unreal.

I think some of the actors should just stick to what their do best. Like Scarlett Johansson should  just stick to action movie as she was cast as a femme fatale here but it just did not work...

In short, the movie was nice but there was no umphh... at the end.

Women have a higher pain threshold than men

This is just a theory that I develop. I have a lot of them lying around and as I have a blog, I would like to put it out and see whether people would accept my contention or not. As the heading says, I believe women have a higher pain threshold than men. Why, you say?

I say this because they experience pain a lot more than men. We men only experience pain when we get into an accident or in something which we know can cause us pain. We play games like football and rugby in which we rush headlong into excrutiating pain and we love every minute of it. We get into a fight and idolise wrestlers who know how to "Bring on the pain!!!" although all those we see are staged. We drive fast and know the consequences of our foolishness. We do all this and then more. 

As for women, they have to experience a lot of pain although they are just some plain jane. The menses that they have to accept as a way of life will wreck havoc some of their schedule, to say the least. They will experience stomach cramps and other cramps in various parts of their body. Then if they get married, the pain of giving birth is said to be as bad as anything you can imagine. Then they allow themselves to be processed under beauty regime which is supposed to make them beautiful. They poke holes here and there. They go through various treatment to be thin, to be beautiful and to some, just to be accepted as normal. Then, of course, there is the sex. I think you can say the early part of sex life of a woman will be more painful than of a man.

So, that is my theory. Anyone disagree with this?

Just like a boy

I have this one person in my office whose sex is female but is more manly in her demeanor than any man I ever know. She likes to sit in ways that can be described as unbecoming of a lady, talks loudly and even sometimes belch like a guy.

We sometimes make fun of her just trying to send her a message that she should be more womanly or at least act like a girl. As her superior she sometimes scowls at me when I commented on these attitude of hers. Just to make a point we even asked her once what her sexual orientation is. It is more in jest than anything.

Then last two month we got a card from her inviting us for her wedding. It is not such a surprise as we knew that she had gotten engaged three months before that. We did say to her not to bully her husband and when she had married him but still talks to him as if to a friend more than her husband we said she should try to talk to him more like a wife. Again, the scowl.

No, I am not trying to say I discriminate against my employee but it's just that I am amaze at her way of behaving like a manly woman though she is all woman, sexual preference included. Do you ever have friends or colleagues who is such?

Handbag carrier

Why oh why must the new generation do it? I have seen it in malls and I sometimes just want to go to these guys and speak my mind about it. I know they think it is part of the whole chivalry thing but it is not. This is disgraceful and it is never to be intended as such. Ask all the handbag designer who design designer handbags, say it together now,

LADIES HANDBAG IS TO BE CARRIED BY THE LADIES!!!

Not you, the man. And please you are carrying all wrong by putting it on your shoulder like that. And please, your excuse that it is heavy and you are just helping a lady does not make sense at all. If they have an oversize handbag, they choose to do so and they should be the one who is carrying it.

I mean, there are no apparent reason for this to be the norm. You are in love and everything, but what justify this? You can still carry their luggage, if they have one or whatever they have bought. You can even carry them if you want to, but please lah, those things that they call a handbag? That's for them to take care of by themselves. Unless they went to the ladies and someone need to hold it for them. Or for whatever valid reason.

But, please, just for the sake of humanity and manhood, let the ladies carry their own handbag.

If a women wear lingerie, what should the men wear?

I have a genuine question. The women have it easy then it comes to looking sexy. They have all this store, La Senza, Xixili, even those which sold grandma underwear like Wacoal has now wised up and is selling lingerie other than just bra and panties. Even the underwear are wild enough to be taken as lingerie. Which means that the ladies don't have any problem having the 'Bridget Jone' complex when they want to get it on with their man, even if it is their first time. 

My question is, How About the Men? What should they wear to look sexy?

I know that women would say, men can look sexy just by being naked and showing off their six-packs abs and chest hair. But how about us normal guys out here? Those with the need to hide some of our bulging stomach. Whose stomach is six pack in a barrel. Or even those who have the normal slim body with nothing to show except their bones. Don't we need some special type of something to enhance our appearance. As much as the emphasise is on how hard we need to be, which have made millions for those who sell all those  enhancers. Don't get me started on the extender which supposedly can help you elongate your manhood. As much as your equipment plays an important part, can't we say the same for the women? But they still get to wear those lingerie and we are left with? 

Boxers? See-through underwear? Crotchless underwear? Thong? (there are those for men, but please, do not wear them to the beach) How about just plain shorts? Or whities?

Any other that I miss out?

 

And this is just one of the latest 'underwear' from Wacoal

Pretty maids in a row

 

The Malaysian Dream Girl Season 2 contestant in their lingerie

Was given a free entrance to see a glorified model search called the Malaysia Dream Girl yesterday. I have never actually been to any event which have the title 'beauty pageant' although I did get invitations among others to the Malaysia Miss Universe pageant last year. After seeing this one, having to wait for them to change and having to endure party games which were hosted by radio deejays (or are they called announcers now?) whose voice actually is not that great but has the luck of being picked as one. It may be their a mile a minute talks which made them what they are today. Never mind if what they say is not even worth mentioning.

As it was an event where you can watched online as it is tout as the first ever online reality series, you can check it out at MALAYSIA DREAMGIRL. I was expecting nothing groundbreaking or worthwhile going there and that was what I got. As it was also the first bloggers event that I ever attended to the fullest, I was dissapointed that we were just there to act as a media representative, which the email sent to us should have mentioned rather than expecting.

The girls did come out in the first instance in lingerie sponsored by Wacoal and that did make the crowd goes while but each time any one of them speak, what came out are squeaks. If the Idol competition is supposed to ask the question "Is this the one which represent Americe/Australia/Malaysia/-insert country here-" when you vote for any one of them, the question that which should have been asked of us is "Is this the girl that you dream of when you go to sleep?". Sadly, it is just another modeling competition. Maybe they will only be the stuff of dream after they have won as there can be only one dream girl. Oh, wait, it is already in its second season, surely now there are going to be two.

Here is another picture and the rest I'll post tomorrow in a real reporting style writing....



In their cheong sam

I will never be your woman

Ever heard of the song titled as above by White Town where the word that they use is

"I will never be your woman"

and it was sang by a guy.

I always argued with a friend of mine that he was repeating what his woman was saying but my friend kept saying it was he saying that he is actually gay and he won't be at the receiving end. 

What do you think? 

Panties in a bunch...

"Don't get you panties in a bunch"

This expression has been sung in songs (I think it was by Eminem) and said by a few famous people which actually does not have to do with real panties, which means that it is a figurative expression. As a figurative expression, the meaning that the speaker tries to convey is that for the listener or those who he or she is directing the words to is for them to not let their mind be too worried about  a particular matter. In short, the message is "do not worry about this matter".

However, being the inquisitive mind that I am, I would like to dissect what the expression means (I love dissecting, you should see those things that I have dissected and never put back together). The expression of course comes from a lady's panties being bunch up during the course of them wearing it making them a bit uncomfortable and fidgetting around. Apply that scenario to the mind is an inquisitive mind which wants to know an answer to a burning question (which is another expression altogether). So, panties in bunch is something which your mind wants an answer to.

Why is panties in bunch used to describe what I have try explain in the paragraph above. Ever have your panties in bunch? It is not very comfortable is it? It can get between the crack of your ass and you try to do the impossible movement of trying to get it out using whatever muscle is there (is it the pelvic?) but after much attempt it is just frustatingly unsuccessful. If you are a man, you will just pull whatever it was that made you uncomfortable (as you can see I use the analogy of panties to describe underwear for both man and woman, though panties are usually worn by women, in general). If you are a woman, you may go to the loo and do it discreetly there although I have seen those who do it in public places as if she was trying to get something out of a small hole (which maybe true to some extent, you get thei idea)

So, ever had your panties in a bunch? Figuratively or otherwise?

The girl in the red dress

In the movie the Matrix, one of the test that was given to Neo is for him to go on a walkabout in a controlled Matrix system, developed by one of his fellow freedom fighter. In that control environment, he was to be aware of his surrounding less any one of the Matrix agent will take advantage and catch him. As he was walking among uncaring pedestrian, a girl in a red dress walks by, he was distracted, and an agent made an appearance in front of him, he was caught and he failed the test.

Back to the real world where men and women live happily as couples, there is this normal occurance, which happen at least once in that couple's love life. While they are out dating, whether at a park, eating at a restaurant or walking down the road, the man is distracted by another woman. Whether it was due to the person's looks. The dress which may be a bit more revealing. Or just that the girl is considered sexy, which is subjective, to the guy's eyes. The guy will at least glance through his eyes, either a full eyeball's view or just using the skill of peripheral vision. No guy can resist watching another attractive girl pass him by without trying to steal a glance.

In my relationship, I am glad I have a wife who seems to be, not just allowing me to have a wandering eye, sometimes she is the one who spotted such girls or women and points it out to me. I know it maybe a bit weird and rare, and I know those who does that even endorse their husbands to do more than that (swingers group anyone?). Even when we were honeymooning in this island called Phi Phi Island where the beachcombers love to run around topless, she also kind of 'helped' me to ogle all those who have these exhibitionist traits. It is a thing which we had developed since we were dating and people watching especially in places of high traffic do become our favourites. And I know quite a few couple who does it together too....

If it's a model on a catwalk, I can ogle as much as I want

Girlie magazine

Not porn but magazine for women. Why are they so thick? You need to go through a lot of advertisements (see my posting on Ads for women) before you can get to the articles or pictures. That is why sometime you see women just flipping one after another page before stopping by at a particular page which interest them. 

There are so many advertisement and they can process the advertisement that pass through their mind in very fast that they only need just a glance before actually stopping at the important one for them. Observe any one of them flipping a woman magazine if you don't believe me. I saw my mom, my wife and my business partner do it. Especially when they are at the hair saloon.

How do I know all this? I mean, how do I know what are the contents of women's magazine? Of course, I am those not so rare breed of men who reads women magazine nearly every month. Eager even, awaiting for those that my wife buys on an irregular basis as she does not have a particular favourite. Cleo, Women's Weekly, Bazaar, Female and some others. I sometimes go into waiting rooms at clinics or saloons while waiting for them finish doing whatever that they are there for just so I can flip through the latest one. Dome Restaurant is also a favourite eating place as they have all sort of magazines either for women or men.

Once I was told, it was a big no, no for men to go through women magazine. I don't think that is a problem anymore as I have seen men sitting down at Border's flipping through them just like it was made for them. Even the publishers have noticed this and adds a few pages for the men.

You got the latest Cleo? Can I borrow it awhile?