You Know I'm No Good

Just when I thought there’s hope in Music and it’s safe to listen to the Radio …

RIP Amy!

Flick Fest

Invited to the Pre-Launch (?) of the 24^th Malaysia Film Festival via SMS yesterday.  Event will be held Monday. Please RSVP by today (23^rd July). Which I duly confirmed attending.

It must be ‘Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah’, I thought, which I collaborated with Mamat in doing the music. Do we get nominated again? What about the others? Who are in the running for what? 

Visits to www.finas.gov.my/ and www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/ resulted in this:

There seems to be a problem with the MySQL server, sorry for the inconvenience.

We should be back shortly.

Bummer ...

Death Walks Behind You

Atomic Rooster was an English progressive rock band, composed of former members of the The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

They adopted the name Atomic Rooster in the summer of 1969 (which was the year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar). Their genre in music is difficult to define, since they went through radical changes in very short times during the life of the band. However, their best-known era represented a more hard rock/progressive rock sound.

This song, from their second album, Death Walks Behind You, was released in September 1970.

Cornerstone

My favourite band when I was with that outfit, 'Random' during the '80s. Tho' we were out-and-out rockers then, all of us were suckers for good ballad it seems.

Gossips!

This is no pre-Friday sermon or anything of that sort. Just fulfilling my obligation as a Muslim, that's all. To my non-Muslim friends. No offence intended.

Abu Dzar (r.a.) once asked the Prophet  Muhammad (s.a.w.): “O Messenger of Allah, what is ghibah?” . He replied: “It is to mention about your brother that which he detests.”

Abu Dzar (r.a.) said: “O Messenger of Allah, what if that which is mentioned of him should actually be in him?”. He (s.a.w.) replied: “Know that when you mention that which is in him, you have committed his ghibah, and when you mention that which is not in him, then you have slandered him.”  (Muslim)

The general character of ghibah is also understandable from a hadith narrated by Aishah herself.  Aishah says: “A woman came to visit us, and when she turned to go away I made a gesture by my hand that she is short of height. “ Thereupon, he (Prophet Muhammad – s.a.w.) said: ‘You have committed her ghibah.’” (Ibnu Abu Dunya and Ibnu Mirdawaih) 

Hence, it is clear from the hadith that ghibah is not limited to linguistic expression but applies to all kind of communication.

The Prophet (s.a.w.) also said, “Do not expose the mistakes of Muslims. For he who follows (searches for) the errors of his brother, Allah will follow his errors, and whom Allah follows his errors, He will expose him even if he was in the middle of his home.” "(Abu Daud/Sahih Al-Jamee)

In Surah Humaza 104:1, Allah s.w.t. says: “Woe to every backbiter, slanderer”.

The above verse refers to those who sting others with their speech, behaviour, mimicry, or sarcasm at their backs or in front of them. They mock them and defame them with evil motives.

One student asked this question to our lecturer then, “Ustad, how are we to go about curing this disease?”. Our Ustad replied,  “Repent and seek the forgiveness from the victim, if this is possible without any chance of vicious consequences; otherwise, you must implore God's mercy for the victim.”

Pray for his well-being after every Solat? Tall order that!

Cinta Muka Buku

That event held Malaysians breathless and on the edge of their seats for a day. Hand clasping the remote, shuffling from channel to channel to keep themselves informed. So many rumours, ambigous SMSs and phone calls from out of town.

I decided to play safe and cancelled all classes for the day. Better be safe than sorry, I presumed. Well, after experiencing TWO horrendous racial riots in this lifetime (one in Singapore and another in Malaysia), I just could not take chances. The symptoms are uncannily similar.

So much for that infamous affair ...

Now, what happened to Facebook? Everybody’s Facebook? Everybody’s LIFE. Prior and subsequent to that, it has become a psy-war battlefield among relatives, colleagues and best of friends. No more what I ate for lunch uploads,  which side of the bed I woke up this morning  and He loves me … He loves me not updates. No one responded to my requests for hardware in my City! Oh no … my Allies are now 'enemies'  in that Empire. They didn’t have time to revive my Electric Roses, too. Gosh ... this social network has become very unsociable!

Profile pictures changed overnight. What colour are you macha? The new badge application came in handy, too. Anybody who can type tried to shove  their ‘doctrines’ down my throat. No statements? It’s REVOLUTION, stupid.

So, ‘happiness is my own responsibility’, fellow Facebookians.  Today, my  list of friends has been reduced to almost half. Thank you!  Always wondered what to do with these hanger-ons who amassed friends just to show numbers -  ‘Wah … you got 1,000 friends lor …’. Yeah, Blessing comes in so many guises.

Here's the hard part. Relatives and long-time friends. Mi Amigo quickly told me, ‘Tweak them settings and you'll end up smiling.’ And that’s what I did.

Confined to very, very close friends, musicians, production people and my students - my Facebook looks neater and I am a lot happier. Mark Zuckerberg designed Facebook to be this way, ain't it? Bye, bye freeloader!

No one else knows the value of democracy? 

No one else cares about this country?

This is surely an elitist we-know-what-is –good-for-you attitude. 

Just shut up, endure the discomfort and we will make things better.  

-  Zainul Ariffin NST.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Inspiration for the song came to George Harrison when reading the I Ching, which, as he put it, "seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else...opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental." Taking this idea of relativism to his parents’ home in northern England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those words were “gently weeps”, and he immediately began this song.


The Beatles recorded the song several times, including a version with a backward guitar solo (as Harrison had done for "I'm Only Sleeping" on Revolver), but Harrison was not satisfied. On 6 September, 1968, during a ride from Surrey into London, Harrison asked Eric Clapton to add a lead guitar solo to the song. Clapton was reluctant - he said, "Nobody ever plays on the Beatles' records" - but Harrison convinced him and Clapton's solo was recorded that evening. Harrison later said that in addition to his solo, Clapton's presence had another effect on the band: "It made them all try a bit harder; they were all on their best behaviour."


This masterpiece was re-recorded by Santana via his single "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" featuring Indie.Arie & Yo-Yo Ma.


R.I.P. George!

Imuda's Favourite

One lazy Sunday at Amcorp Mall, some time ago, my friend, actor/cartoonist Imuda, or Abdul Rahim Muda.pulled a fast one on me. He bought a stack of rare 'Johnny Winter' CDs off the stalls ... God! What do you know? This funny man is also a blues freako, man.

He conjured another trick when we went jamming with the Purple Haze Band at Duta Vista. He blows fine Harp, too! My solos went all over the place as I could not keep my jaw from dropping. Another blues harpist made a quiet exit after el maestro pulled the rug under him  ... well, keep practising, dude.

Bro Imuda ... High Five!

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon

I woke up rather early this morning. Reason why? Had to send Nabilla to a photo shoot at In Trend Magazine, Seri Kembangan. I HAD to send her there as, if you are familiar with Seri Kembangan and it's vicinity, the place is a PWD (Jabatan Kerja Raya) version of Mad Hatter. One wrong turn and you will be driving all the way back to KL. Or do you prefer Seremban?

I have always bragged that my days are not time-sensitive. But after 3 successive days of pinching forty-winks at odd hours, Murphy’s Law warmly wished me ‘Happy Morning’. It took me a good 15 minutes to look for my wallet, scouring for some bills and two wrong turns (God Bless  those people who put  up 'shady' road signs!) and there  we were. On time.

Along the way, glancing at Nabilla, half-believing: ‘My oh my, this girl is going to a photo shoot!’.

Wasn’t this the baby, who, not so long ago could not speak a word until she was three year’s old? And when she did talk, she was our official story-teller. No stone unturned - secrets simply not safe with her. The toddler who had trouble in maintaining body equilibrium? She went tumbling all over the back seat every time I did those ala-Hakkinen drifts. The girl who begged me to relief her of her duties as a School Prefect  just because, all of a sudden, she was in the spotlight? I can still remember Nabilla took one whole year to interact with her college mates. Well, she was brought up lovingly by two families, mine and my sister-in-law’s. Thus, the idea to co-exist with other people was really ‘Not In’ then.

And Presto! Here is one young lady, sensible, sensitive, multiple Dean’s List scholar, screenwriter-to-be and has huge penchant for 80s music (she loves 'Radiohead' and heard Alan Parsons Project's 'Eye In Sky' blaring through her minute laptop speaker yesterday). However, she won’t scrape through doing those balancing acts still. I suspect.

We celebrated her 21^st birthday last week.

Welcome to the adult world, Nabil. I will guide and protect you, no worries (but curfew will be, as usual, at 11).You will always be a baby to me - no matter how old you are!

The Ruba'iyat

Verse 103:
Suppose the world went as you wanted, then what? 
And suppose this book of life were read through, then what? 
Let me suppose a century of self-gratification left, 
Even supposing we had a century more, then what?


Verse 197:
Oh heart, do not grieve over this worn-out world, 
You are not aimless, do not indulge in aimless sorrows; 
Since it is not clear what has gone and what has not, 
Be happy, don't grieve over what was and what was not.


-  From the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam, 9th Century Persian Sufi .


Note: Simply Brilliant eh?

Paint It, Black!

I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colours anymore I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars and theyre all painted black

With flowers and my love both never to come back

I see people turn their heads and quickly look away

Like a new born baby it just happens evry day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black

I see my red door and it has been painted black

Maybe then Ill fade away and not have to face the facts

Its not easy facin up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue

I could not foresee this thing happening to you

If I look hard enough into the settin sun

My love will laugh with me before the morning comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colours anymore I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

Hmm, hmm, hmm

The first lick that i learned on the guitar. Thought by THE guitarist of the day, Ayob Taib from The Rhythm Boys (from that A. Ramlies's and the Rhythm Boys fame). The lick opened the floodgate of licks, riffs and tunes of that era, i.e. 'Apache',  'House of the Rising Sun',  'Walk Don't Run', 'Perfidia', etc for a puny guitar toting kid, i.e. me.

The intro is rather simple actually. For wannabe guitarists, you just leave the 1st String E open and play the tune on the 2nd String B starting from the fifth fret. And voila!, you will get the hippiest, turn me on, Flower Power-ed, like, pseudo-Sitar sound ever!

Day One

Assalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh and Salam Sejahtera

Brothers and Sisters,

Out of the blue, I have responded (should I say, submit?) to the urge in creating my own Blog. I have blogged before, and have a decent number of followers if you are in my list of friends in Myspace. As a rule, nothing blasphemous, holier-than-thou, X-rated subjects and intimidation will be published.

Cheers!