no time for hifi.
been busy with all things music.
hold your breath. i have been talking to various parties about starting a performing arts centre. think no black tie but 4 times the size.
we would either rent a place and build the venue, or take control of en existing venue and handle the program direction (contents).
my idea is simple. there is an acute shortage of medium-scale live performance venues in kl. KLPAC is perpectually full; actors studio has been closed down (and soon to be reenacted again in Lot 10); NBT is way too small; DFP is too high cost; Istana Budaya is too big....
i want to bring 2nd and 3rd-tier international artistes to malaysia. they can be jazz, indie and pop. they can be western or chinese. think tommy emmanuel, zhang xuan, joanna wang, jacintha, aiza seguerra, emi fujita etc etc.
what's music making without live performances? building a live performance stage is my ultimate dream and this dream is very close to realization....
progressing in parallel is my chinese indie album project. my talented singer-songwriter (let's call her CJ for the moment) has begun work on the album. it is going to shock the chinese music industry, that much i can say.
tomorrow, a group of us will be heading to tiny dot for cheer chen's 2nd live concert in singapore... it is gonna be a blast. in her last concert in 2007, cheer gave 6 encores!
watch this space closely.
infrequent updates
8 years ago
10 comments:
Hall and Oates would be nice.
M,
Not that I'm Mr Freeze, throwing ice water to your project, but I've heard lots of horror stories of organizers trying to bring foreign acts into Malaysia.
Lots of red tape to overcome from immigration, permits, entertainment tax, authorities' vetting, etc.
And, you must have the all important c-o-n-n-e-c-t-i-o-n, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, all the best to your new endeavour.
lazerjuan,
hall and oates must be in their 50s now! yeah, love them when they were in their prime. man eater!
km,
thanks for your concern. for controversial acts like korn and rihanna etc, we do worry, as evidenced by the recent sunburst debacle. for audiophile artistes who are clean and sanitary, no worries. besides, i am partnering someone who is a seasoned organizer.
my only worry is many malaysian audiophiles are armchair music lovers, and not live concert goers! i hardly see audiophiles in NBT, for example!
M,
If you depend on audiophiles to be concert goers for support, sorry to say, the project may be a dead duck.
Many (or should I say most?) audiophiles look at their systems as the most beautiful aquarium, thinking too that it is also the ocean.
ML,
Can't say I represent most audiophiles in particular, but there's two issues preventing me from going to a concert.
1) Ticket prices, I understand good acts often cost more, but I am willing to only spend no more than RM$120/ticket. Concerts are no fun going alone! So multiply at least by 2, and some refreshment, petrol and parking cost in a day's out, and you can see the figures do add up considerably.
2) Concert timing, with a family of young children, nite time outings without them is almost zero chance! However, if day time, weekends for a 2 hour concert, not unlike those Dewan Philharmonik Petronas Sunday sessions starting 2.30pm would be idea!
Just the view of an humble salaried employee with a young family.
panzer,
then you are an armchair music lover lor.... ;-)
nothing wrong with that but it is a real pity (for those who don't attend live concerts) as the live atmosphere is more spontaneous and electrifying than the best hifi system on earth...
Agree with Panzer. Having a young family is a TRUE hindrance preventing ME to go to any concert OR movie even :-)
Sometime can't even enjoy a proper meal!!! What more a concert... to someone horror I am using IKEA rack to house my system, I know it is not good but it is good to prevent those little fingers you know :)
In general, I think it is good to have more LIVE performing arts centre, will I go?? Yes. Only when my princess can take care of herself.
Lim
ML, I concur with Panzer and anon. The concert going time for me at least is temporary stopped due to family commitments. People like you should go to much more concert than homebound people like us. Concert going will resume maybe in 10 years time when prince and princess can be less dependend.
panzer, lim and gck,
i appreciate the fact about family and kids but if your wife is also a music lover then the issue is altogether solved. my friend in oz, attends concerts on a weekly basis, and he has a 3-year-old daugther, but his wife is also a music lover!
ask yourself this question - were you already a concert goer before you get married? it is in the blood, really.
the fact remains that malaysia is a cultural desert.
ML,I understand your frustration, in some sense "Malaysia is a cultural desert" as you put it. If we are to liberate it, in my opinion should not just limit it to music, how about other form of Art? Paintings? Sculpture? Architecture? This sort of cultural awareness takes time... your determination to champion this is to be applause; however I hope that you are aware that this challenges may be beyond you at times.
I don’t blame audiophile has tendency to be “armchair music lover”, some music lover I know don’t own great system some don’t even have a good system just a PC with 2 speakers!!! They can enjoy music even though with a simple system because at times what they seek in the music is quite different from what audiophile look for in the music. I believe MUSIC itself has space for “armchair music lover” and “true music lover” to coexist, we don’t need to force one champ to become another. Everyone should enjoy the ‘fruits of its labour’ in its own right.
I feel that ‘playing hifi’ is like playing a remote control car, we can enjoy the hobby even though we are not a true race car driver. It is a smaller scale of the actual thing, yes I believe if someone actually driven a race car in a race track it will change its perception but for those who has not tasted the actual staff their enjoyment in the hobby is equally valid.
Maybe I have not try hard enough to go to concert in a regular basis, but I do attended a few I have penned down one of my experience in a guitar concert http://www.cgs.net.my/Article_Guitar%20Alive%202007_11.htm I must confess that I am not a true music lover, but if the ticket price is reasonable, the music is of good quality and able to get someone to take care of my princess I don’t see why I should refuse to go ML, again your aspiration is inspiring.
Lim
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