Malaysian Theater Review: Cuci The Musical 2

How could you not fall in love with Afdlin Shauki's work? I love his work and adore his movies. Coupled with a completely non-threatening villain like Harith Iskandar, you have the perfect recipe for a great comedic play. Ooohhh, I almost forgot, Awie, you make a great mak nyah (your tone and body language is superb) and Hans Isaac, I really had to laugh whenever you snickered.

It is due to the two dynamic duo (although I am also not indicating that the other actors were not stellar in their performances, but these two are heavyweights in Malaysian comedy), I was absolutely thrilled when I found out that Cuci the Musical 2 would still be on during one of my trips to KL. So, in lieu of that, we decided to make the most of our working trip and bought three tickets to watch the musical.

FYI, this is my first time watching a musical and definitely my first time to watch a play at Istana Budaya. Gosh, you must be thinking that I must be living in a remotely island somewhere in the middle of the rainforest (which is where I am exactly, Sarawak is on an island covered by one of the world's oldest rainforest). Well, it is certainly not a first time for me to watch the theater though, I am no artist but I have starred in a play or two during high school. I was very much excited as I heard that the tickets are pretty much sold out. An indication of a good play is when the tix are sold out (or so I'm told). But don't be fooled peeps, that might just be a marketing ploy to get y'all to hurry and buy tix.

So, what's my verdict? For one thing, for a play, this is a very long play indeed. The whole musical lasts for about 4 hours, so if you've got to pee, you'd better make a beeline for the ladies prior to the show. But don't worry, there's intermission, so you can do you business somewhat two hours later.

One thing for sure, the musical will certainly get you up in your stitches in laughter. It is a wonderful, wonderful play. I love the show, not only due to hunky Hans Isaac (gosh, I adore him) but the movie actually tries to simulate everyday people in a normal everyday activities albeit in a not so normal manner that is ultimately very comical and hilarious.

If you are looking for a reason to laugh, look no more. I laughed for the whole 4 hours during the play. I really can't help myself. Sorry Afdlin, but you people are seriously very, very funny. And the best part is, I wouldn't mind watching it a second time. Gosh, I love art in any form.

For those of you who are contemplating in watching this play, oh please do. I truly recommend it. And for those who are not contemplating of watching, I'd also like to recommend it to you too. No, don't worry, I'm not getting any commission for promoting the musical.

Till next time, have a blast at the Istana Budaya peeps!

p/s: the main cast consists of Afdlin Shauki, Awie, Hans Isaac, Nabil (adik beradik yang tak sama mak bapak), Vanidah Imran (Mizzz CJ), Harith Iskandar (a villain named Wira, how ironic is that?), Jacqueline Victor (Jessie who adores banana fritters, wonder how she'll react to pisang goreng keju which is totally scrumptious), and Reefa (who acts as a manager, boyfriend, mc and mamak stall owner and being able to rap simultaneously).

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Fashionista's Movie Review: Salt

How can anyone look so fabulous while being on the run?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Yep, that is how Angelina Jolie is. Unfortunately for mere mortals like us, we are not blessed with smooth skin and perfect hair so we are left to make do with sweaty enlarged pores and dry flaky skin *loud sigh*.

Anyway, had the opportunity to watch this movie during the weekend and I was simply in awe of the stunt scenes and the twists and turns in the movie.


So, I'd better let you in on what the movie is all about, shall we? And by the way, the way Angelina looks after jumping from lorry to lorry is simply wrong. She looks so good after being flung onto the top of a lorry, how could your hairdo looking perfect?


The movie started with Angelina being tortured in a prison in Korea. Although she insists that she is not a spy, the movie revealed later that she is indeed a spy for the CIA. Then the movie started to introduce her husband and the life that she was living two years later.


All of a sudden a Russian spy came to confess that there is going to be a killing two days from now. A killing of the Russian president during the funeral of the vice-president of the USA. And the killer is Evelyn Salt. Definitely Angelina was surprised and shocked (by the way, she is surprised because she IS Evelyn Salt). All of a sudden she was running because she was afraid what would happen to her husband. And so starts the action, drama and suspense.


Overall, I would recommend the movie (not because Angelina Jolie is in it) simply because I love the storyline. I love the way how the plots change and the element of surprise in the movie. For me it was certainly a great movie to watch.


See y'all at the movies!


xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Bead It!

Had the opportunity to join a beading workshop last night. Just in case you didn't know, Sarawak is located on Borneo Island and it consists of many different races and tribes so we are basically a huge mix of different cultural ideals. We are very lucky to be living in complete harmony and last night I had an opportunity to learn how to craft a bag out of beads, a specialty of one of the races in Sarawak and apparently I learnt the hard way that it is not so easy to bead!

So, in case you're interested, this is how it's done:

Step 1: Prepare some beads. Actually it's better if you prepare a lot since you might be running out of them. And you may want to prepare in different colors (depending on the designs that you'll be making)

Step 2: Thread in and out. This is a wee bit complicated to explain on a blog. If you're willing to learn more, do buy a book on beading *sheepish smile*

Once the base is complete, all you have to do is continue beading and it will naturally go upwards (if you're not a pro, like me, sometimes it falls limply to the side instead of going upwards) *geez*

Full concentration is a complete must. Otherwise, it may not develop into what it's supposed to be.

The unfinished product after three hours of labor. That means that it takes a very, very long time to complete your beading. This is certainly not for the impatient :-/

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Batik Workshop

Yours truly (which means me by the way) had the opportunity to participate in a Batik workshop at Kuching Waterfront. For those who do not know it is, batik is a handpainted cloth. It is a traditional art, considered as a symbol of cultural heritage for the Malays both in Indonesia and Malaysia. Although I must say that the batik designs for both Indonesian batik and Malaysian batik are very, very different. Even for us in Sarawak (by the way, I am a born and bred Sarawakian), the Sarawak batik is also very different as it showcases very distinct Sarawak motifs life the hornbill and such. The background color of the cloth is usually white, though not necessarily so. But for this workshop, we were given a white cloth to begin with.

Here's the process of batik making (or at least what I had gone through):

Step 1: Prepare a blank piece of cloth. Make sure it's tightly held. This is to ensure that the colors will not spread all over the place.

Step 2: Prepare hot wax. The wax will be drawn onto the cloth to create a divider on the cloth to display the different designs and motifs.

Preferably you are supposed to draw a draft of your design with pencil on the cloth. Afterwards, layer the lines with wax. In this case, I had to forgo drawing on pencil as I couldn't even see what on earth I was drawing. I decided to chant the lines with wax freehanded.

Step 3: Fill in between the lines. I was told to fill in the motifs color first (although I do not know why). At this moment it seems like my motifs consists of fern leaves and eggs (do you see the resemblance?)

Voila! This is the finished product! Although I must admit that it does look very colorful, initially I did not intend it to be that way. However, I am still very, very happy with the end result.

So, what do you think? Not too shabby for someone who's a total lefty brain. I think this would look well in my bedroom.

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Homework

Attended another session of Mandarin class last night. As I am now currently in intermediate class, I have to do sentence construction and also complete my homework.

Homework?

The homework consists of sentences (it could be in the form of essays or dialogs, whichever suits your fancy) that will hopefully improve our mastery of the language. Luckily I am a Malaysian. The advantage? Well, Mandarin sentences sound somewhat akin to Manglish (if you don't know what Manglish is, it's a combination of Malay and English words put together in a sentence). An absolute rojak of terrible English grammar but it actually suits us just fine. This is a sample of my homework:

Wo you yi ge mao.
I have one unit cat.

Wo de mao shi liang shui.
My cat is two years old.

Ta hei se.
It color black.

Ta hen fei.
It very fat.

Wo de mao xi huan chi yu.
My cat like eat fish.

Ou er wo de mao xi huan shu.
Sometimes my cat like mouse.

Wo hen xi huan wo de mao.
I very much like my cat.

(Disclaimer: My Mandarin is not perfect and nor is this an example of good usage of the language. Definitely my lao shi had to correct a few sentences and those corrections are not shown in the sentences above).

So, what do you think? Funny English right? Well, it sounds perfectly alright in Mandarin and if translated, it is are perfectly usable in Malay.

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Another Outing

So I went on with another photo shoot today. Was scheduled for a workshop at Alvin's but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to the lack of numbers. Well, that doesn't mean that we can't practice, can we?

Although I really want my skills to improve (in terms of mastering the manual adjustments of the camera) I decided that it is more important for me to know how to capture first rather than mastering the technical side of the camera. Besides, I am a wee lacking in the skills of being able to read and comprehend a manual (a female habit, I assume) so I'll take the easy way in learning how to photograph.

So we went scrounging the streets of Kuching and this is what I got so far;

Went to a Chinese temple. I totally love this shot!

And I love the details of the roof. I really like this shot!

Really like the bright red background.

Somehow I fancied the window =p

Raden loves this shot. I told him it's gray upon gray upon gray.

We also liked this shot.

Tried my hand at silhouette photography.

So, what do you think? Am I getting better?

Til next time!

xoxo Fashionista in Action

For the Love of Photography

So I attended another talk on photography.

No, I am NOT addicted.

But, I am INSPIRED.

These amazing speakers, with years of experience showing fantastic pictures (or as Peter Tan would put it; showing off) but whatever it is, the WOW factor is definitely there.

Hopefully one day my work will be as good as that. But for now, it's back to practice, practice and practice!

But one thing I know for sure, I want to join a photography academy!

Not now though, the dosh is not there yet, but definitely somewhere in the near future. And, I've set a date. It must be after I've completed my Mandarin classes. So, hopefully by next year I'll be in a photography academy. Let's revisit this post by July next year and see whether I've enrolled in Alvin's academy.

That is a picture of me!

Raden submitted it as his work for the competition =p

So, these are my photos for the competition. I am so proud of myself! I know the photo quality is not as a pro but I am so proud that I managed to put aside my self-consciousness and participate. Although I am usually very confident of myself, but as for photography, and knowing to the fact that my skills are very, very basic, I am self-conscious of my work. But I managed to put those feelings aside and submit my application. I wished that I had submitted more pictures. But then again, I know I'll try again in the future.

This is the photo that I submitted. What do you think?

To dreams and realities =D

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo