recipe written by the dumb and lazy (2)

since many despice my fool proof recipe of chicken porridge i made another attempt and managed to modify it towards a healtier version... the vegie version, suitable for all vegans, vegetarians, and also anyone with a slow cooker. This is a recipe for the lazy... that's me! for anyone from three to ninety three. Very simple.
1. Change the chicken drumstick to a handful of shredded cabbage.
2. Don't add the pao-sum, as they don't go along with the cabbage well.
3. The rest is the same as in recipe 1.
4. Leaving it cooking for about five hours.
I strongly recommend this to the strict vegetarians, you know who you are lar...

the road is... long

that's how i would describe my driving trip back to KL right after the penang jazz fest. The road is long, with many winding turns... la la la... and if singing keeps me awake, you can consider it too!

a journey home (part 2)

We went for my mom's medical check out last friday. Apparently she hated the disinfectantish smell and reluctant to be hospitalised, so the nurse put on an ECG suit for her to monitor the heart beats for a day. It's equipped with a tiny recorder at the size of a walkman, and all the patient need to do is to press the "record" button once they sensed irregular heart beats. So we went to returned the hi-tech apparatus the following day, and waited for the reports. Thanks to my father who's taking good care of her. She was diagnosed to be very healthy. So now she was recommended to return for lateral healthy monitoring once a week.
After fetching my folks home, i drove back into town for vince's favourite tam boon pia. Since the time was early, i popped by to Sommerz to have a look at the workshop by Steve White. After spending more than half an hour to look for the exact place, i don't think i should give up finding. Luckily the workshop hadn't finished when i arrived. Steve plays the guitar, harmonica, shaker, and sings... all at the same time! The style is pretty much folk with some rhythm and blues. Normally he starts a tune with a rhythm riffs and talks a little bit before progressing to sing. Quite a humorous guy though the audience was very polite. I left early after finding myself the only one laughing at his story telling. And reached Him Heang to buy the last couple packs of the freshly baked tam boon pia, while other delicacy like the sweet tau sa pia was sold out hours ago!
It's my mistake to assume there's no traffic jam. So i was stuck in a jam for almost an hour nearby the race course all the way to the tanjung tokong. Hence missed the first performance! The second performance was Shannon and himself on the ivory. Sound kinda like broadway singing. Followed by Sufiah and friends.

These friends included Julian on sax, Eric on Keyboard, Fly on bass, and John on drums. And the best is yet to come.

More people entered after eight. Some actually were well equipped with mat, plastic or leisure chairs. There's also few attap huts, booths selling light snack & drinks and a lot of heineken banners which compliments the green-color atmosphere. After Sufiah, Mr. Zailan went on stage in clutches due to slip disc. Danial, his six year old prodigy son surprised the audience with his virtouso playing and great ability in tackling the complex rhythms. After about five to ten minutes break, Steve White went on stage to amuse everyone with his funny story of playing in a one-man-band.

Next, we have Greg's Nonet enthralling the people with their lush horn voicings. Few of the tunes were newly adapted for the nonet, which i heard in his quartet before. And i noticed an example of smaller people likes bigger instruments! The smallest people in the horn section was the baritonist!

Whereas on rhythm section, greg had the all star made up of mac on keyboard, andy on electric bass and lewis on drums.

The finale act? Saharadja from Indonesia. Everyone was astounded by Australian Sally Jo's beauty. When i say everyone, that includes quite a numbers of the musicians i was visiting as well. The band made up of Rio on vocal and trumpet, Sally on electric violin, edy on drums, Badut on fretless bass, Barok on banjo, sitar and tabla, Gede on vocal and guitar, Ajat on didgeridoo and zambre. Few of us there were very impressed by Gede's pitch-perfect super high falsetto singing and Ajat's superb groovy expressions by the steel didgeridoo. While i was standing by Charles, watching Gede playing the guitar with precise technique and great consistency, the gang of Julian, Eddie and a japanese kawaii were dancing and attempting the high kicks... as those you could imagine... as in the cabaret! And i should keep my mouth shut on this matter before revealing too much!

a journey home (part 1)

It isn't much fun to drive long distance, especially after a stretch of twenty-four hours' work. And this was my last cup of coffee before the night fell last friday. At RM 7.50 standard or RM 8.50 large for a latte, this should be a real steal. And the sugar container actually gave this whole posh segafredo coffee the penang feel. A back to basic treat!
I went to Alliance Francaise in Jalan Phuah Hin Leong to buy the Penang Jazz Festival ticket. The people is much friendlier than you could imagine, especially Sophie and Yann. They gave me directions to find the place, suggestions for car parks and even offered food while i was there! The art-pieces you see here are “Colours of Jazz Exhibition” by Christian Vey. "very illustrative!". There's a lot more paintings and the exhibitions finishes on this Dec 10, 2005.
About 8:30 PM the workshop started with Mr. Gambus telling us a bit about his modern gambus, which has a flat-bottom and installed with pickup. The strings are guitar strings. One could experiment with plenty of modes since this instrument's main characteristic are the micro or quarter tone, and also the 'thrill' musical expression. The sound is very subtle and mellow because the original gambus was commonly used to perform for the king during his majesty's lullaby hours. Other musicians include fly on electric bass, and eric on acoustic piano and a drummer missing in action.
Japanese kawai, Chie Hanawa amazed the males not only with her smooth complexion, but her aggressive virtuoso playing on the shamizen! This ancient japanese instrument is using only three strings, instead of the common six strings for the guitar. The acoustic volume is range from medium soft to extreme loud! The character? Bright. Percussive. Unique. Yes, it's the one used by the geisha, but the repertoire and style was totally different, as explained by Chie. This baby is not pratical for chordal playing, and it's fretless! Here's something interesting about the pick. It's made of tortoise shell and ivory. Guess there should be some synthetic alternative, in order to prevent these two animals from extinction. A note about playing the gambus or shamizen? One must be equip with very very good ears!
Now, where is Julian?