ARE YOU ON THE DANCE FLOOR, DANCING, WORKING ON YOUR MOVES AND STEPS?
OPPORTUNITY DANCES WITH THOSE ALREADY ON THE DANCE FLOOR. SEIZE THE MOMENT.
BE WHO YOU ARE AND SAY WHAT YOU FEEL
BECAUSE THOSE WHO MATTER DON’T MIND.
PROVE YOURSELF TO YOURSELF.
DON’T FORGET TO ENJOY THE MUSIC.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
It is now mid-week after the weekend at Booth F1.03, Amcorp Shopping Mall. I am sitting at the Corner table just next to the glass entrance / exit door at Good Ground Bakery. Soft, soothing, piano music is coming from a single, light-colour, small, round, multi-directional speaker, sitting on a table behind the counter. It goes unnoticed by most people. The music is loud enough to fill the whole room but not loud that you would have to raise the volume of your voice to speak to each other.
The weekend at the booth seemed to have gone by (what should the filler word to describe the ‘speed ‘in time be? [1]) quickly. We set up our booth by 10.00am and before long, we had visitors stopping by. The Batik Influencer was busy from the word “go”.
We had many first timers visiting us at out booth. They also became customers or would be customers. I sold multiple diecast vehicles, including Hotwheels. When I first started selling off my Hotwheels and diecast vehicle collection, I had well over 500 vehicles. Now, I am left with less than 100. I’m glad the vehicles have found homes with their new owners. All those who purchased these diecast vehicles from me, are all collectors themselves.
As we went through the second day, Teacher Annie, Laura’s pre-school teacher at Beaconhouse, came by our booth. It was so nice to meet with her after all these years. Annie remembers Laura well and asked after her. We brought each other up to speed of what we are doing now and also about our families.
One of the highlights of the day was I purchased a green Fudora. Another was that Jeannie acquired a beautifully crafted copper bracelet, decorated with colour stones. The bracelet is a birthday present for Laura as her birthday is in a couple of days.
Towards mid-afternoon; Mervyn Gomes dropped by, bringing with him a fellow Klang La Sallian; Terence Singh.. Terence’s brother is the famous singer, guitarist, song-writer, performer; Gerard Singh. Gerard is well known as the guitar man.
Terence, who resides in Johore (2); usually meets with Mervyn quite often. Terence whipped out his smartphone and called another old friend, John Stotdard; on Whatsapp video. It was good talking with John. It has been many years since we last met. These guys were neighbourhood friends in the 1970s and 1980s. They are several years my junior, more my youngest brother, Malcolm’s, age group.
I had the opportunity to meet with many BMW owners and enthusiasts. We touched on many topics of BMWs. Most of them, including me; are more “old-school” BMW guys. Today’s BMW models seem to have lost its plot. Moving into electric vehicles (ev), they look just like any other ev. Hard to tell them apart from say a Chinese make.
I had the opportunity of meeting with several readers of leatherpotato.com. They have been supporters for a long time. One of the best comments I received was, “Your writing is definitely by a human. We can feel the humanness in the way you express yourself and put your views across”. Another comment received was that she liked how I “toyed” around with the English language.
Before we knew it, it was the end of the day. We packed up (took us nearly an hour to pack our things) and headed back home. On the way home, the question….that question…”What do you want to have for dinner?” “Anything”, was the answer. Great!
NOTES:
1. “Very”, “rather”, “alarmingly”
2. Johore is the southern most state of Malaysia.
It is dark now. Not totally dark, though. The porch lights of both my neighbours’ houses from across the street, are on.
The skies are rumbling in the near distance like it is having gastric. Hearing the tarp, tap, tip of raindrops hitting the ground at a constant even pace, like they are keeping time with music. But I don’t hear music. The rumbling sounds of the sky are like sounds from coming from a large circular drum – the drummer using big padded mallets (1) and striking on it in a way to create that rumbling, muffled sound. The sky and raindrops must be the ones “performing a musical number”, It must be a deep jazz number. The drums don’t seem to be in time with the sound of the rain drops falling.
It rained in the late morning to mid – afternoon, too This hampered me from going out for my usual 15,000 steps, over 10km walk until the later part of the afternoon. There was still an overcast sky which kept the high warm temperature at bay. However, I managed a decent 10,000 step count with a fairly average speed of 5.2km/h brisk walk. Was done in an hour 25 min, showered and went for my next appointment on my schedule.
Now, while writing this essay; every few minutes, I get up, walk to the fridge to look for something to munch on. Or even to take a sip of coffee. No snacks. Just sliced watermelon or pears. Though this day has generally been a wet / cool day (or is it a cool / wet day?), I still felt like I needed something cooling. My coffee was kept warm in my Hydraflask tumbler, even though I kept in in the fridge. Taking a break from the screen every few minutes gives me a chance to refresh for the moment, and possibly gather my thoughts. Who knows? It may create different perspectives of the same subject.
If knees could talk, what would they say?
The other day, (yes, that day if you are wondering which day this was); the Batik Influencer, my wife; Jeannie, and I; sauntered into a cafe for a bit of a chill out time. We thought it was going to be just the two of us.
The cafe was quite crowded, did not seem like there was a table for us. Then, I spotted one, one of those cafe, small-size tables, but great for the two of us. The table was a low table, which now reminds me of a couple of holidays I had in Hanoi, Vietnam; a few years ago. Most of the tables and chairs there, were low (closer to the ground). Here at this cafe, the chairs were of normal height.
The table could accommodate an order of a couple of drinks and maybe some pastries to go with them. What it could not accommodate were our knees. Our knees were higher than the table top. This meant that he would have to do a bit of a stretch and bend forward slightly, to reach our food and beverages from the table. It was fine…
Jeannie ordered a latte and I, a lemon/orange drink with ice-cream soda (I think).
Just then, my cousin, Chris, and his friend; showed up. The four of us managed to huddle around this small table. Then, our friend, Jino, walked in the door. Now, there were 5 seated at the table for two.😁
From the table’s point of view, it saw 5 pairs of knees, surrounding and staring at it. The table was not shocked or surprised. It was used to knees staring at it.
As the 5 pairs of knees looked at the table, they looked at each other, too. If they could talk, what would they say? “Fancy meeting you here”, my knees would have said to Jino’s. Chris’ knees would have said, “We’re quite tired from this morning’s walk exercise Chris put us through”. My knees would have said, “That’s nothing. We have to put up with 10km brisk walks everyday”. Jeannie’s knees would have lamented, “It’s been a long time since we last went dancing. However, we get exercise from Jeannie’s walks in the neighbourhood, where she meets and exchange plants, flowers and food with neighbours”.
Other topics would have included the weather, new places they have visited and the aches & pains they are going through.
Do knees have minds of their own? Do they have dreams and ambitions? If they had minds of their own, would both the knees of each person be in constant agreement as to what they want to do, or where they want to go?
Are there times when our body wants to go in one direction, our knees in the other.
As of now, we have to be happy that our brain is in charge and controls our whole body, including the knees…for most of us at least. There are people who would tell you otherwise, where their knees do as they please. 😂
NOTES:
1. Mallets are sticks that have thick material pieces at the end. This material completely changes how the sticks sound when they strike drums and cymbals. The thicker the material at the end of a mallet, the warmer the sound will be.
Sunday morning, 10.27am (I think).
That was the time we sauntered (1) in. We carried the two biggest bags out of our car. Looking at us, one would think that we were running away from home; or was it “ran away from home” since we had already done it; i.e. the action was already put into motion.
Just before arriving here, we stopped by at New Apollos restaurant near our house; to get my “fix”. Jeannie, the Batik Influencer, also known to be known as my wife; brought along our Goji and Rain 532ml Hydraflasks. For those wanting to go out and get themselves a Hydraflask Goji or Rain 532ml flask; it may be a bit difficult as it does not show up on their website. “Goji” and “Rain” are Hydraflask’s version of Red (Goji) and Grey (Rain). I know, I know, my thoughts exactly! Why can’t they just call a red a red and a grey a grey.
We hand over our Hydraflasks to the drinks guy who promptly fills these containers with Nescafe Ice Kaw Kaw, including adding several ice cubes to make sure the drinks stay chilled throughout the day. The Hydraflasks do an outstanding job in keeping my Nescafe ice Kaw Kaw super ice cold, right up till the evening, when we pack to head home.
So, we lugged, tugged, dragged (not really) our two biggest bags from our car to the booth, first. We laid out all the main things like the batik, Hotwheels cars, watches, and some tech stuff. We made a couple more trips back to our car, which was 3 levels below us, in the carpark.
It did not take us very long to set the booth up the way we wanted. People were in a “Relak lah, brudder” (2) “Sunday mood”, which was good. A change from the usual “hard at work week”, for most of us, at least.
While I watched people go by, I recognised a gentleman walking by in his Sunday’s best at relaxing. “Mervin”, I called out. The gentleman turned round, “Hey! Alan”. With him, was a young lady who was heavily tattooed. She also happened to be the younger of his two daughters. Mervin, his siblings and parents, their cousins, uncles and aunties, have been close friends of the Atkinsons of Klang; going back over 50 years. It was good catching up on things since we last met, here, at Amcorp Shopping Mall; a few months ago, when he passed our booth.
I came to the mall today, unhatted. (3) I already had my sights for the “tweed” and was waiting for the right moment to visit Mahmud.
Mahmud was a floor above us, on the west side. I put the flat cap (also knowns as the “newboy” cap) on, and it was perfect. Mahmud said it matched the sling bag I had today.
Throughout the day, there were people coming by, purchasing many of the Hotwheels vehicles that were on display, A guy bought my Thronmax full professional mike set. I used it only once thinking I was going into podcasting. However, I realised that I was not ready for podcasts now. The planning, script writing, perfect environment, editing – this was not my thing. At least for now. I may pick it up again sometime in the near future. Another person also bought my Cross fountain pen, which I first purchased 40 years ago. That guy is going to get many years of good writing experience from it.
I was also the D.J. for the afternoon; playing a wide variety of English and Malay songs. I played Liyana Fizi’s “Nona Nona Zaman Sekarang”, “Stay”, “Jatuh”; CCR, Michael Buble, Meghan Trainor, Ushera, Sheila Majid with her hit, “Sinaran”; just to name a few. I saw lots of people moving to the rhythm of the songs,. enjoying what they heard. Probably a good 3 hours of music. I think the speaker must have popped as there is a bit of a rattling sound when the volume is turned up.
A Singaporean couple came by just as were about to pack up for the day. They purchased the last of “Jeannie’s Own” batik capes that the Batik Influencer had for the day.
The “CARS” display, keychain, and the diecast cars of Mater and Flo, were also sold just before we closed. Everything CARS is sold.
By the time, we got everything packed in the car (we did not saunter. We moved at a much faster pace as we wanted to get home), it was past 6.00pm.. It had been quite a long day.
I, during the day, through observations as it (the day) went passed; have got several more ideas for my book. Right now, it seems disjointed. I need to thread the ideas together. While it looks like a trillion (4) piece jigsaw puzzle at the moment, the excitement is building up working at putting these pieces together.
NOTES:
1. “Sauntered” means to walk in a slow, relaxed manner.
2. “Relax lah, brudder” (spelt according to how it sounds) means take it easy. It is very common to hear this in everyday life in Malaysia.
Though the little speck down south of the peninsula claims (like every other thing that becomes catchy and famous); that this popular phrase originated from them; there are doubts to this claim.
3. “Unhatted” means not wearing a hat.
4. Trillion a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012).
10.45am The morning of Chap Goh Meh. Amcorp Shopping Mall. We had “settled in”, more or less. Our things were all in place, and we were ready to meet people who were expected to come by and see what we had to offer.
The Batik Influencer put in many last minute hours (Hmm.. what are “last minute hours?”) to ready a couple more of her Batik Cape Creations under her label, “Jeannie’s Own”. So, yes, very little sleep over the night (or is it “Under the night”?) English can be very tricky.
The Mall was quite quiet during the first couple of hours. Maybe, everyone was sleeping in late, due to the Chap Goh Meh eve celebrations, where the ladies were standing on a bridge, throwing..em…casting over the bridge all their oranges, with telephone and email contact numbers, hoping some lonesome hombres will find it and contact these ladies.
I did not research enough for the significance of this tradition. At face value, this could be my take: The ladies had eaten more than enough oranges for the season. The saying (“They say”) goes, eating too many oranges is not good for the throat. So, the ladies now had to get rid of the left over oranges since they were not going to eat them anymore. Some smart alec (alexandria?) thought of “killing two birds with one stone}: Get rid of the oranges, and maybe find a rich guy in doing so. As the saying goes, “single or unmarried women” are expected to be the ones throwing the oranges.
However, get this: there would be some ladies who are already attached but want to test the waters (pun intended; no, not to see if the oranges would sink) and who knows; pick up someone new. And a new trend could be in the making where the guys would be throwing oranges by the cartons (desperate situations calls for desperate measures) in the water, hoping to pick up a lady in distress (?). From what I heard of a recent story here in Subang Jaya where the lady orange picker up-er, liked the guy, bought him a Porsche and married him. (1)
It was just after mid-day when the crowds started coming in. The Batik Influencer was at her element, talking about anything batik while demonstrating her unique Batik Cape Creations. Derek, our lawyer friend; upon hearing that the Batik Influencer had new designs up for sale, asked me to send pictures of them. Within minutes, he replied, having chosen one and would come by to pick it up.
In the meantime, I thought that since I brought my mini soundbar speaker, I would have some fun blue-toothing some music from my phone to the speaker.
I first started with Liyana Fizi’s rendition of “Nona Nona Zaman Sekarang”. It came out so beautifully over the speaker that it attracted some people from around, including from the floors above and below; to come over. It is such a happy, catchy tune. In fact, we could see many people tapping their feet or making some happy gestures in keeping in time with the music, especially to the songs they knew.
Then, I picked another one of her songs. I started playing many of Ushera’s pieces, too. She is super awesome. You should definitely link up to her and enjoy her beautiful, beautiful songs and support her career, too. Before I knew it, I was the D.J. for the east wing. I played songs sung by many singers, both, men and women. It certainly livened up the place.
We met with our friends, Khatijah Marianne Magness and Jane; both of whom run their own booths and are very established in Amcorp Mall. We also met my cousin, Leticia; who stopped by for a short visit. It is always nice to see her and her husband, Johnny. These are opportunities for us to bring each other up to speed with the latest going-ons in our lives.
I went to Mahmud, the hat seller’s booth. I found a cap which I think is nice. It’s a “newsboy” type of hat. Mahmud said that this is a favourite of the royals. What do you think? Should I go for it?
The Batik Influencer and the Hatted Writer (that’s me, of course😏) decided to call it a day at about 5.30pm. By the time we packed everything and was ready to go, it was just after 6. We are looking forward to tomorrow.
Venue and Time:
1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall,
Booth 1.16, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping Mall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Feb 24 and Feb 25, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)
NOTES:
1. The “lighter side” of traditions.
“To love somebody…to love somebody the way I love you…” coming over the “airwaves(?)” Bee Gees… and I am taken back to 1971, 1972, when the movie “S.W.A.L.K” was showing.
It was also the time when Susan B**l was the “Wow! The gorgeous Girl” that every guy could only watch from afar. She was 21, we 13. Her boyfriend drove her around in his brand new Ford Cortina 2000 GXL, we…many of us did not even own a bicycle. I saw her a few years ago…she was still a stunner. Oh…and she married her boyfriend of 1971, 1972.
Mid-way through the second day at Amcorp Shopping Mall. The crowds are in, full-swing, browsing, window-shopping (no windows here. We are an open booth😂), shopping.
By the time I got to typing, thinking, tinkering, screen-tapping (was about to use “thumping”. Leave it to your imagination), Bee Gees was over. Either I was a tad slow in typing, Bee Gees was taken off the air, or the song finished. I will go with the last option.
Jeannie has sold her latest creation to a very, very happy customer. She said she will be proudly wearing it during the coming soon Chinese New Year (lunar new year).
And I; I met with a journalist from a leading Malaysian newspaper. I decided to add more pizzaz to the fun I have in writing. I went for the new look.
Towards the end of last evening, at the closing stages of sales for the day; I remembered that there was a booth selling hats. I went looking for it and found it. The booth was on the west side (our booth is in the east wing), 1 floor above us. I saw a couple of hats I liked, one much more than the other. However, I did not want to hold back the hat seller from packing up for the day.
Today, while I was eager to don a new look with the purchase of the new hat that I had yet to buy; we had a good number of people visiting our booth. Some were friends that we made in our previous outings here. I met an old La Salle Klang, schoolmate, Charles Thomas; too. He introduced me to his younger brother and a friend of his; both from La Salle Klang, too.
By the time I got going to get the hat I wanted, it was way into mid-afternoon. I met Mahmud, the specs & hat seller. He has an excellent selection of hats.
The hat, known as the “Panama hat” was still there. I tried it on again and confirmed it had to be you (the hat). The one I liked. I was sold.
If you are looking for a hat for any occasion, Mahmud’s the guy to see. He runs a booth on the 2nd Floor, East Wing.
While the hat itself has no. Magical powers, it sets the tone for new fun and conversations. For one, as I started wearing this hat, I noticed there were many others who wore hats, too. I mean, besides the common sight of those sporting baseball caps, there were many others who wore hats of all shapes and sizes.
Before we knew it, it was time for us to pack up and head for home. Not everything had gone the way we would have liked it to. I believe that the biggest takeaway Jeannie and I had this weekend was that we made more new friends.
Now, to go home and enjoy Harry Connick Jr.’s “It Had To Be You”.
1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall (1),
Booth 1.16, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping lMall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Jan 27 and Jan 28, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)
As the day drew to a close for Jeannie and me, Jeannie decided on her usual, “watching a Hallmark Christmas movie”. I was still in the midst of shutting down everything at my workstation, closing my books and thought I would do more exploring and tweaking of my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5. It’s a folderable smartphone. However, once Jeannie got a movie going (rolling?) on the tv screen, I put my Fold 5 away. I have yet to give it a name. Any suggestions?
Once Jeannie chose a film, she put it on pause to wait for me to settle down (lie down on the wooden floor [I find it extremely comfortable doing so]). After getting a couple of gulps of a very strong and quite unusal black coffee (kopi peng kaw kaw [The brand of this coffee is soon to be revealed in an upcoming article. Kate, watch out for it]) (1); I settled in to my “watching tv position”. Watching tv is quite a rare experience for Laura, Jeannie and I, as we hardly have the time to do so. A couple of weeks could go by without us ever turning the tv set on (Not us physically turning on the tv set. The English language could mean so many different things. Quite difficult to take it literally.😏 “Take it”? to where?😉)
As my eyes locked onto the tv screen (the picture that is), the actress, Roxanne playing the role of Amanda; caught my attention. She simply was simply beautiful; more stunningly beautiful. The role she played of a budding photographer (more like Creuella, the “famous” photographer’s assistant). She was natural, she was the movie. Lovely! I won’t say much more. You have to watch the movie for yourself: “Picture Perfect Royal Christmas”.
After the movie, I took to connecting with her on Instagram, to let her know what I thought of the movie. She replied a few hours later, a screenshot of her response is below.
Going through some of her Instagram pictures / videos, I was impressed with her quest to be fit / stay fit. Also caught on to some of her other works, like the one below; “Game of Thrones”.
Roxanne is a very accomplished person. I hope to have many more interactions with her. I am definitely looking forward to more of her upcoming work.
For now, “Just look into my eyes”…
Artist, Singer, Batik Influencer, Writer
I was moved by her post on social media. She was speaking from her heart.
Beatrix is an amazing, gifted artist (minus the letter “e” from “artiste”). She has always bettered herself with every new piece that she creates.
We met over coffee at Tedboy bakery at Atria Shopping Centre in Damansara Jaya, a suburb in Petaling Jaya. It was really nice to see her whole family again. The last time we met was September 1st, 2019.
Paul – her husband, and I; are somewhat related through marriage. We share the same aunt, Aunty Aileen; who is married to my dad’s brother, Uncle Al.
Paul is really Elvis Presley. He’s got the smiles. He’s got the jokes. The moment he starts singing, he captivates his audience.
Beatrix and Paul are very dear friends of mine. They’ve got three lovely children. They are all entertainers. Catch them on their social media platforms.
Beatrix and I are working together and are coming out with a 2024 series of very limited edition paintings: “Raindrops: The Heart Beats”. There are 12 different pieces of art in this series. Only 1 set (Comprising of the 12 paintings) will be made available. These 12 paintings can be purchased individually, more than 1 piece or the whole set. The first piece will be out before the end of January. They would be up for sale both locally and internationally. Rush to book them now. We will fill you in on the details soon.
The Americano coffee at Tedboy is quite nice. You may say an Americano is an Americano. Or black coffee without sugar and creamer / milk. Also knows as “kopi-o kosong” locally in Malaysia.
To the average coffee drinker, a black coffee is a black coffee, no matter what fancy name it may have. A black coffee is the same as Americano. Some black coffees may be stronger or more acidic than others. It may seem that way. However not quite.
To the more than average or more discerning coffee drinker, the coffee shop may serve ordinary black coffee from the cheapest coffee beans available. However, more and more cafes (upmarket coffee shops or so it seems), proudly advertise the types of coffee beans they use. There are many.
Some newer cafes like The Contour cafe in P.J. Old town; have their own roasting apparatus. One of the ways to get different “shades” in terms of taste of coffee will be roasting the beans at different temperatures and how long the time the beans will be roasted. Different temperatures and roasting times create different strengths of coffee. Very niche. Each coffee connoisseur will thus, create that uniqueness in the blends, aroma and taste of coffees.
Time flew by so quickly that it was time to part ways. We are very (How do we quantify very? SOO-ooo–oooo) excited about our plans in the pipeline. Our works will continue to surround on peace, love, life.
Beatrix – Artist, Paul – Singer, Jeannie – The Batik Influencer, Alan – Writer.
Terrible, terrible terrible!
These earbuds came as a free gift bundled with one of the Samsung items I purchased. The retail price on the box was RM699. With this price, I expected this to be of some good.
The earbuds came in a nice box. Box opened, there were the earbuds, charging cable, 1 set of thin covers and the usual reading material with any new item.
The earbuds looked pretty nice, sort of a pearl grey – black. Samsung calls this “Mystic black”. The other colors offered were Mystic Bronze, Mystic white and Mystic Onyx. So, expectations were high that the sound coming out of it would be good.
I am not going to go into its specifications. The general users which are most users aren’t really going to delve into the speaker cone size, how many mics each earbud has, etc. All they want to know is how long can the battery charge last, does it look good and the price.
Everything good so far.
Pairing the Buds Live to my phone was quick and easy.
Using them. From here on, it was downhill all the way.
I am an above average user, meaning I enjoy good quality sound. OK. More than good quality sound. Great sound.
These Buds Live were a let down.
The first issue I had was placing them in my ears. They did not fit snugly in. The size of the buds size is reasonable. You would think that they will then fit in snugly. But I was not confident that they would. I kept on worrying that these things may just fall out of my ears at any moment.
All it was capable of was pumping out sound. Terrible sound. Some sort of sound. It’s range was flat all the way. You would keep the bass and treble settings at 0 if this was a class A amp. However, this was not a class A amp or earbuds. My RM100 Redmi earbuds was way better on all fronts.
Its volume at the loudest level sounded like they were around 75% loud when compared with the Redmi.
To be fair, I did not test these buds with incoming calls or outgoing calls. I cannot comment on its performance in this area.
I also cannot on how this pair would have sounded if they were connected to the Samsung Buds app. I guess I was peeved by the fact that they sounded terrible right out of the box. The EQ settings on the Buds app is nil. You just choose between normal, bass boost, soft, dynamic, clear, and treble boost.
Noise cancelling? That seems cancelled.
Overall, I think these buds’ price is quite steep for what they have to offer. As I mentioned before, a fraction of the Buds Live’s price, Redmi, seems to offer more for bang for its buck.
However, if you want to have a “branded” set of earbuds and you are not expecting too much or are not too concerned on how these stack up against others; if you like them; then go for them.
Maybe, just maybe the set I had was faulty and not living to its image. Seems to have many caveats.
Final note is what does not work well for me may work well for you. My choice of music may differ from yours or your primary purpose to have a set is to be handsfree; sending and receiving phone calls, then, once again, this may be ok.
If you are looking to be seen with snazzy earbuds on, this Samsung Buds Live shiny earbuds may be the set that fits in your style of dressing.
Music is the language of the soul. Music is food for the soul. You can feel music yet you cannot physically touch it, it flows in your veins, it is in the thoughts, hearts and minds.
Music is thought to encourage people either one person, few people or large groups of people to act or react in a way. The general election is days away. At the last election, the then Prime Minister who wanted to share his love of music; brought in the one and only, uncopyable (if there is such a word), Psy; who performed his outrageously world famous, “Gangnam Style” to wow, entertain and woo voters. This time round, now as ex-Prime Minister, he may give his own rendition of “Jailhouse Rock”.
What is music? According to Wikipedia, music is a form of art that uses sound organized in time.
It is the art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. The tones or sound employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and instruments, or both. (1)
“It is the expression of deep emotions and feelings.” “Music calms me down, lifts me up and always makes me feel a certain way.” “Explains things when words fail; Music speaks.” “Music means something that’s inspiring and can match your moods” “Music helps me connect to life.” (2)
To me, music fills the void by pushing out silence. Is it an art? It may just well be. It colors life. Is music a “Control panel” of life? It may well be, too, but just only; as the war drums sets the adrenaline to do battle in coming out tops; yet harps and violins can set you to a peaceful calm; a rockstar band sets the tone for high excitement in a rock concert, and an orchestra playing can tell a story without a single word having to be uttered.
Just recently, at the 90th birthday celebration organized by world renown Chef Wan for his mother; my wife, Jeannie, and I; were making our way around the many junctions of the large variety of food that was on the offering. Then, there was this beautiful music number sung by a lady, that came over the large music speaker nearby. I thought nothing of it except that it set the mood of the afternoon party. What a way to enjoy this beautiful array of food, even further.
As we continued towards inside the house on our food extravaganza search; I soon found out that the music that was coming through the speakers was not recorded, but a lady singing the songs in person. Wow! I was blown away by her rendition of this music piece, “Getaran Jiwa” by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee. Her delivery of this song was effortlessly her natural self.
Generally, I am not familiar with most local music due to Malaysia’s rich diversity of languages and talent. I believe that music is an international language that anyone can fit in anytime.
I had the opportunity to meet with this wonderful singer, Ushera. She is her natural self on stage as well as off stage – one and the same. She sang many more songs which captivated the audience and got them to dance, too.
Ushera is versatile, effortlessly sings jazz, latino, romantic. I think a performing star like Michael Buble could team up with her to come up with some great song hits.
I would like to leave you with her version of “Buka Pintu”; a song that my siblings and I grew up with in our much younger days. Also included here are more of her hits.
NOTES:
1. Issuu
2. Clocksandcloudmusic