TULANMEN - 4 UGAYMEN, WE R VERY TULAN

a normal chat with my pal, boo boo.

(1:20:27 PM) taisuan: u usually online do what one?
(1:20:40 PM) Boo Boo: my computer on 24 hrs
(1:20:43 PM) taisuan: …
(1:20:55 PM) Boo Boo: i take bath, it still on
(1:21:03 PM) Boo Boo: i lunch, it oso on
(1:21:07 PM) Boo Boo: i go out, it oso on
(1:21:26 PM) Boo Boo: but main purpose is online chat with ahooi
(1:21:55 PM) taisuan: oic…
(1:21:56 PM) taisuan: tulan
(1:22:08 PM) taisuan: i many weeks no see ah hooi liao
(1:22:15 PM) taisuan: donno what he looks like liao…

introducing our new drummer…

he is our close friend, mr lewis leow. he’s been playing the drums for many donkey and turkey years and have played in a few bands before.

he likes a wide range of music style. he’s the oldest amongst uglymen members. he has been with us, seeing us jamming, joining us for gigs, breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. he has recorded our band once in 2005. we have slept at his house but he doesn’t want to sleep with us. tulan.

mr lewis leow doesn’t want to disclose his photo to readers yet. eventually when we perform at our first gig, we’ll show him to the world. he is very handsome. he has metal, not plastic surgery on his face with nails, screws, buttons… u name it.

he is currently practising his drumming in a far away mountain to attain divine nirvana. uglymen will not be playing in any show these 1 or 2 months. we are going to rehearse back with me taking up the guitar again after 2 years. it horrifies me when i think back that we have played 3-piece for 2 years already, so fast! to be honest, those 2 years were the BEST of uglymen. we did things that previously not possible. now, with mr lewis leow joining us, we are glad to brainwash him to think and behave like us… kekeke.

we are so excited to include him in our disfunctional group. let’s give a big masturbating hand to mr lewis leow! clap! clap! clap!

work, work and work. work has been pissing me off lately. when the next project goes live, i would be working for 7 days. now, its 6 days.

i have been “removing” my drums stuff these few days. i’ve been doing a lot of mental shifting from being a drummer BACK to guitarist. i feel like as if i’m a ball being kick around. well… not a bad thing, considering the fact that i’ve learnt more than drums for the past 2 years. i’ve learnt that with tenacity, GREAT focus, patience and don’t-give-a-damn attitude, you can reach your goals. i have learnt so so so much over the 2 years, not only drums BUT how to achieve certain goals in life. it changed my life and i have used some of those experience in my career and it helped!

as part of my drum learning process, i subscribe to RHYTHM magazine from england. RHYTHM is a drum magazine packed with lessons with CD/video including minus one. i used to subscribe to MODERN DRUMMER from the U.S.A. i swicthed to RHYTHM just the beginning of this year. MODERN DRUMMER is not bad. it has stories and biographies of drummers and you get to read a lot of inspiring stories of how these drummers make music a successful career and how drumming improves their overall life. it comes with lessons but these lessons do not have any sound samples on them.

RHYTHM magazine comes with CD (including video in the CD) of the lessons examples. it doesn’t have much drummers’ stories and biographies, instead it focus on how to let readers improve their drumming. it has backing soundtracks for you to play along with the drums. i learnt a lot tricks there.

a few days back, after confirming a drummer to our band, i have switched my magazine subscription to GUITAR TECHNIQUES, another U.K. magazine that comes pack with lessons on CD/video. this magazine has the same concept of RHYTHM magazine where it focuses more on playing than getting to know a guitar player’s life. that’s one of the steps that i’m doing now.

i have cleared my room of all drum stuff. only a few drumsticks and practice pads were left in my apartment. the new aspiring drummer came to apartment last nite and took all the necessary gear to start off his journey with uglymen. i have passed him:

1. yamaha DTX electronic drums (belonging to michael — thanks to michael very very much for making my drumming possible)
2. almost all my RHYTHM magazines with CDs
3. original DRUMS instructional DVDs
4. DRUMS lessons in books
5. my cymbals: all SABIAN — 20″ HH leopard ride, 16″ HHX stage crash and 14″ paragon neil peart hi-hats plus a 10″ sabian B8 splash
6. my shure headset microphone - he likes to sing and i’m glad
7. my pearl eliminator double kick pedals - he loves the double chain, i’m so glad he did
8. my aluminium drum sticks and michael’s pair of brush
9. my instruction videos which i’ve downloaded from the internet
10. my pearl dennis chambers signature snare drum (14″ X 6.5″), fixed with safe hoops + 20 tight screws and Dynamicx snare wires
11. shaker
12. drum torque - drum tuning device
13. ah hooi’s proton waja floor mat (long story… better ask ah hooi)

(** chun wei, i bet u love those cymbals and snare drum — cause i love them very much, i’ll miss playing them)

at first, i wanted to sell off the cymbals, pedals and snare drum so that i can get some cash to buy some guitar gear but i thought for a moment and our new drummer hasn’t gotten some of the relevant gear. i guess i want to MAKE SURE our band sound nice, i lend all those gear to him. to play in a band with the music that you love (not the one that you can make money with), you gotta sacrifice and get the right gear to produce the right sound. having achieve a good sound and performance from good gear is extremely important to uglymen. yeah… we may be stupid and we probably ARE stupid to invest in gear without any hope for return of investment (getting profit back). but, what the heck? there are stupid and smart people mah… there’s so many smart people out there, let us be some blur-blur guys also good so that you guys can laugh at us, bwahahaha.

today, i trade-in 2 pairs of new and un-used VIC FIRTH 5A (hickory) drum sticks to music world and bought myself a piece of PLANET WAVES 20″ guitar cable. my previous cable lent to ah hooi, ah hooi ties my cable in his bass bag, my cable no longer working because of ah hooi. tulan

we’ll disclose who our new drummer is… some of you may have known him. he’s as gay as us. i just got to know that he’s into beastility, also very ngam with us. i like. we’ll introduce him in our next post.

to ngap: thanks for the recommendation. i spoke to ah hooi about your drummer friend. after discussion, hooi and i felt that its better to get someone who has similar characters as ours.

if you guys want to know about the proton waja floor mat story, ask ah hooi.

-sorry for late announcement, too much work.
-michael-one.com will not be updated till further notice as i reformatted my laptop and all macromedia software still not installed.
-i forgot server ftp liao… need ask paul first..
-since i have cut down the number of students drastically, i will only list out the top five.

Piano~

1) Teoh Siew Yen
2) Chan Qi Sheng
3) Zoe Wong
4) Chia Kok Chew
5) Ung Chuin Ling

Guitar~

1) Chan Qi Sheng
2) Tan Chin Sing
3) Seow Lim Seng
4) Ung Chuin Ling
5) Ng Kae Vin

congrats and keep up the good work!

p/s: also many congratz to students who won award at the music school annual award show (i did not attend, so not sure if everyone got their award, but below are my choices)

Best guitar student of 2007 - Tan Chin Sing
Best piano student of 2007 - Chan Qi Sheng
Progressive student for guitar 2007 - Ng Kae Vin
Progressive student for piano 2007 - Zoe Wong

after 2 years, i’m giving up on playing drums

it’s silly to say this but i have been studying to play drums for the past 2 years INTENSIVELY. i have invested in acquiring the skills and getting the right gear to help myself sound good. and just about when i’m almost virtually on par with michael and hooi playing, i gotta give up. why? michael got a project, which will last for about 6 months. and if things work out, he will be extending the project. geographically and time wise, playing with uglymen is no longer possible for michael.

the sheer fun factor is brought down to earth, violently. but hooi and i gotta support mike in his career move because throughout his participation with us actively since 2003, he has seen ups and downs. the constant practice, planning and gigging took a toll on him. he has jeopardized his classes, career, time etc. sad. he has sacrificed a lot for the band.

i was not about to give up drums until hooi told me “why don’t you play back the guitar?” i said “huh?”. it never crosses my mind that ONE day, i *may* switch back to play the guitar. i have abandoned the guitar, i have sold off my books, CDs and passed my guitar effects to michael. i still have my one and only one guitar with me. it’s like going back to your long gone hometown and what you see are just flashes of memories and unfamiliar faces. what the f*? i don’t even know what is the common guitar amp in the market, what effects are making waves or which guitarists are taking the world by storm. all i know is that the electric guitar is still having 6 strings… sigh…

i did some thinking. the things that i left behind are coming back at me now. i thought for it for a few weeks. when i switched from playing the guitar to drums 2 years ago, there WAS no turning back. NOW, i’m skeptical. i can’t play the guitar like i used to. i need to re-learn all the things, i have forgotten already — i can’t play fast, clean or complex. i’m a total shit now.

anyway, to be honest, i have thought of doing something else if uglymen were to stop from the point mike calling it quit. i was thinking of taking up other hobbies, learning new skills, writing or working part time. because ah hooi told me to think about it…. i think and think, then i ask ah hooi “who is the drummer then?“.

ah hooi said … (to be continued in next my post)

our friends from sarawak, were selected to go to kenting, taiwan this year — to participate in their annual springscream music festival. they are scheduled to play here.

congrats to Slap! sadly, only 3 members of Slap! are going to taiwan because their guitarist, jackson is bound at home. he’s a hairstylist and he doesn’t have a worker to take care of his business. what a waste.

anyway, drummer leslie called me and said that this year springscream is a bit different. bands who are chosen to perform at springscream will need to bear their own EXPENSES such has flight, food and accomodation. we were lucky last year because food, accomodation and local transportation were provided to us. we had 2 BIG buffet meals daily and we ate until vomit.

good luck Slap! please kick some ass in taiwan!

i received a mail from Youtube.com early last week, notifying me that my video “Yui Cherry on Guitar” was removed because Sony Records Inc Japan has notify them that i violated copyright laws. that is ridiculous, becos:

-that video was played by me
-that video has no commercial purpose
-that video is not being sold, charged or subject to payment

then, i thought, maybe the backing track from Yui’s album i used is an infringement, ok then, how about the other MILLIONS of Youtube user submitting their videos using other artist’s backing tracks  / karaoke tracks?  arent they should be deleted too?

Youtube followed on telling me that a repeat offense in violating the copyright rule will subject my Youtube account being suspended or deleted…. i just think this is so stupid.. playing an artiste’s song on Youtube is so normal and even help promoting their songs… before Youtube delete my video, they should delete news, award ceremonies, sports shows, soccer footage, concerts, live shows, MTV blah blah… which are all violating the copyright law!!
in fact i have found SO MANY other videos using Cherry background music, here’s one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw-K3n-Ag-U

p/s: Youtube did inform on complain procedures, but the process is stupidly long and tedious.

this is so stupid and heartbreaking and discouraging in making other new videos…

After Malaysia election, there are too many rumuors spread around like protest, perhimpunan, BOIKOT and so on…..These messages were sent by small group of ppls who try to make all malaysian in fear.

No matter you like or dislike the new or old goverment or new policy….Any issue can be settled in a peaceful way…Not necessary have to gather & protest….

pls vote for Love & Peace.

who is bad and who is right and what newspapers NOT to read. i’m exhausted deleting all those messages. i buy newspapers for 4D, sports toto and magnum only, ok? and occasionally comics and entertainment news.

if u think current local newspapers are corrupt or whatever-lah, u can visit malaysiakini.com but if u r cheapskate and have no money to subscribe to opposition news, u can go to another free opposition media: HARAKAH. this is an opposition media controlled by PAS. u can fill all your satisfaction by reading this media hitting against govt or what-ever-lah. as long as it feeds your oh-so-hate-ful-anger hunger. sigh…

please dont sms me again lah… please lah…

new tricks by robbers, it already happened few places…

modus operandi 1~

robbers asked a kid, sneaked into your house, knocked on your door, asking for help or something (normally at night), you looked through the window, saw an innocent child, you openned the door, the next thing you see is some pkm pointing gun or parang at you…

modus operandi 2~

robbers sneaked into your house, turn on your tap in your house, let the water run (or what ever that may get your attention), also normally midnight after 1am, you came out to your porch… there you go, fish in the net, robbers waiting for you..

so the next time a kid come knocking at your door in the mid night, you either prepare well and look through the window with some family members alert, or call the police, or if it’s me, i will open the door, grab the kid, slam the door, then take out my mini phone book from my wallet, put in front of his chest, and take a hammer, sakai him, then call the police…

just came back from band practice 2.05am

a glimpse at my schedule for the next 10 days…

13th mar
9.30am-10pm music class and uni wrk
10.30pm - 1am performance
1am-3.30am - chase songs…

14th mar
10am-10pm music class
10.30pm - 1am performance
1am-3.30am - chase songs…

15th mar
10.45am-9.45pm  music class
10.15pm-1am - band practice
1am-3.30am -chase songs…

16th mar
1pm-10pm - music class
10.15pm - 1am band practice

17th mar
10am-12pm - uni work
1.30pm-5pm - music class
6.30pm- 930pm - music class
10.15pm-1am - band show

18th mar
1pm-5pm - chase songs…
6pm-8pm - music class
10.15pm - 1am - band show

19th mar
3pm-9pm - music class
10.15pm - 1am - band show
1am-3.30am - chase songs…

20th mar
11.45am - 10pm music class
10.15pm - 1am - band practice
1am - 3.30am - chase songs…

21st mar
10am-10.15pm music class
10.30pm - 1am - band practice
1am - 3.30am - chase songs…

22nd mar
DEAD….

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