Faizal Tahir stripped at 8TV birthday bash

Faizal Tahir, the first runner up of the reality singing programme, One In A Million, is giving 8TV a shocking birthday present, by stripping in front of thousands of viewers at Central Park Avenue, Bandar Utama.

Now you see...Now you don't...

As usual, he likes to take off his jacket and throw towards the audience. But this time, Faizal has a better plan to celebrate 8TV's birthday. He decided to strip his singlet and belt to bear the letter 'S' on his chest, which everyone know his craze for the Superman logo.

My colleague who watched the show last night, was shocked and said 'biar betul ni'' when seeing Faizal stripping off his clothes one by one. Although he only went shirtless on television, his act is controversial and not acceptable on local television. What more it was a live show. According to my colleague again, the show was suddenly cut off during the climax and went into commercial, fear for further advance by Faizal.

At the press conference, Faizal expressed his regrets over the controversial incident and stressed that he is not under the influence of drugs.

As for his punishment, he will have to do community service. Well, just 6 months of community work in return for an instant popularity and a new title as the latest sex symbol, perhaps it's a win-win situation for both Faizal and 8TV's One In A Million Season 2 which has already started November last year.

(Images from mSTAR Online)

Will you drop American Idol like they drop Hicks, Studdard and McPhee?

American Idol season 7 is going to start soon. Are you excited? Am I excited? No!

I have completely lost interest since the last season whereby Jordin Sparks is the winner. The judges said the same thing. The contestants sang the same kinda songs. Perhaps the only thing interesting is watching all those William Hung wannabes.

The show has lost its credibility. Yeah, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry did make some airwaves with their hit songs. But others just go down the drain. Record labels have dropped previous winners Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard. And now another record label decided to drop Katharine McPhee as well.

Last season was a complete disaster. American Idol has become the biggest joke with Sanjaya being one of the voters favourite. To me, the voting system has never been my favourite. It sucks when you see the best contestant being voted off while keeping the weaker ones. Try ask Chris Daughtry fans.

Will American Idol end up like another reality show 'Survivor' (I'm talking about ratings-wise)? I doubt American Idol will survive too. Okay, maybe another season if Paula Abdul is being accused drunk on the show or Britney Spears decided to call Simon Cowell for advice.

One Million Star: Hottest reality-based singing program in Taiwan

If you haven't heard about the show One Million Star (超級星光大道) before, you must be living under your shell. Or perhaps you are just not into the Chinese music industry.

Don't we all love kung fu movies? In a typical kung fu movie, the gang from a rival school (usually bad guys) will always ask for a challenge from the main actor (usually from the best kung fu school in town). In Cantonese, it is called tek gun or chai cheong, if you know what I mean. Even Chuck Norris wanted to challenge Bruce Lee to see who is the best.

The same idea is applied to this singing contest whereby challengers are welcome to, well, challenge (in this show, they use the term 'PK', which I still do not know what exactly it stands for) the contestants. Some challengers suck but there are also some good ones, like Jam Xiao, who are feared by the contestants in season 1, which is currently shown on AEC channel on Astro every Sunday night. In season 2, one of the challenger is our very own Malaysian, Astro Talent Quest winner in 2001, Eric Lim Kien Fai. I am quite impress with him singing his rendition of the song 'My Way'.

*Spoiler* Recently, I gain a lot of traffic from this post about the show. Some people want to know who is the winner of the first season. Well, if you can't wait for the result show on AEC channel, the winner is Yoga Lin. Surprisingly, Aska Yang is the most popular guy in the show despite he didn't win after pulling out from the show for personal reason which has something to do with the controversy in the show about his age. And not to mention Jam Xiao's success too.

Here's the performance of the three guys (the first three contestants in this youtube are Aska Yang, Yoga Lin and Jam Xiao). If you are following up with season two, you might want to agree with me that this time, a girl is going to win.

One Million Star - Taiwan hottest pop culture phenomenon

Lately my sister has been so into this reality singing contest, One Million Star. It is the hottest Taiwan pop culture phenomenon in the year 2007. Currently AEC channel on Astro is showing the first season on Sunday night while the show is already in its season two.

This show is hosted by Matilda Tao with regular panel of judges which includes singers Phil Chang, Kay Huang, and Terry Lin, producers Yuen Wei Ren and Wang Wei Zhong, and image consultant Roger. The show also attracted many celebrity guest judges and performers, like Gary Chaw, S.H.E., Nicholas Teo, Kan Kan, Z-Chen Cheung, and David Huang.

The show started from a preliminary round of 100, and through months of singing challenges and elimination rounds, emerged with the top winner. Even before the show's conclusion, the final ten contestants, dubbed the Million Star Gang, had become huge stars throughout Taiwan, with a bestselling group album in the bag.

Last week, I managed to watch the show for the first time and I am lucky to be able to watch Jam Xiao perform. He is one of the guy who challenged the contestants and he is damn good. He is so good even A-Mei wants to duet with him in her new album. Check out this guy's singing because he really gives me goosebumps on this show last Sunday. And do check out his hairstyle which once upon a time looks like a lion hair (or rocker from the 80s).






Read the second part of my post here.

The Amazingly 'Beautiful Asian' Race is back

Yay, The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) is back for season 2!

I must admit that I love the Asian edition although I can't help myself from comparing them to the US edition. Anyway I'm very positive that season 2 will be better improved compare to the first one.
Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to in this season:

1. Allan Wu will be more relaxed and not as stiff as he was in the first season.

2. Consistent when implementing time penalties. Do not imply time penalty at the beginning of the leg like what happened to Andy and Laura for speeding in one of the episode. Time penalty should always be given at the pit stop. In Andy and Laura's case, if this rule has been followed, they would have been eliminated from the race. Obviously, the producers wanted to keep them in the race but not through such a bias and obvious ruling.

3. There we go again... models, tv personalities, beautiful Asian people with great body on TARA. Honestly I would prefer to watch fat soccer moms, ordinary son and dad team, geeks, etc.

4. What? No Indian contestants?

5. Hope to see more dramatic scenes when boarding flights e.g. competing to get seats, using alternative airlines/routes to get to the same destination, etc.

6. More self-driving, please. It's always more challenging to see the contestants drive in foreign countries rather than just taking the cabs.

7. Do eliminate a team during the first leg. During the first season, again it is very obvious that the producers wanted to keep Sandy and Francesca in the show after they were spared the elimination after came up last during the first episode.

8. Would like to see the contestants travelling farther and more countries rather than just focusing in Southeast Asia. And the contestants in season 2 will be travelling outside of Asia which is a good news.

9. I'm hoping for more drama between the team members. It seems that there are more all-female teams this time around and my instinct tells me there will be cat fights going on. Meow!

10. I'm rooting for one of the dating couples to win in this season.

a human beatbox better than Blake Lewis (American Idol)

You think Blake's Lewis beatbox is cool?

Wait till you hear from Joseph at the Nouvelle Star audition, a French reality television show based on Pop Idol. My friend send it to me and I thought I want to share it with you guys who have not seen this before.

a couch potato on Monday

Actually I have posted a similar post back in March. Just that now I'm spending even more time in front of the idiot box on Monday.

Firstly, you have America's Next Top Model Cycle 7 from 8 p.m. onwards on Channel V. Right after that you have to turn to AXN Channel to watch The Amazing Race: All Stars from 9.pm. to 10 p.m.

Then you have a 30-minute break to do whatever you need to do and come back to your TV set at 10.30 p.m. and tune in to 8TV to catch Prison Break Season 2. By the time the show ends at 11.30 p.m. you have another 15 minutes to stretch your back and make some drinks. After Quickie @ 8TV, you can't wait for the third reality shows of the day, Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back on the same channel at 11.45 p.m. to 12.45 p.m.

I'm not sure if this is only happening to me. So, Monday is not really blue for me because I'm always looking forward to it each week.

AF5 student fired after her racy photos found

If you have read my post on Akademi Fantasia earlier this week, you will find my post is true.

The pelajar Akademi Fantasia mentioned in my post is missing from today's Konsert AF5 because she has been fired from Akademi Fantasia. (Update: In explanation to her non-performance tonight, she claimed that she was under stress and therefore have to leave the show)

Finally, her racy photos has been discovered which lead to her dismissed. Sorry, I can't post the photos here as my blog is U rated. But you can try google for other blogs and website for pictures. There are about 4-5 nude photos taken by herself when she was drunk and posted into her myspace website. In Antonella Barba's case of American Idol, her nude photos are fake although her semi naked photos are real.

By the way, I'm watching Konsert AF5 and it is a boring show compares to previous seasons. And I'm kinda disgusted by Ogy Ahmad Daud's judging style. The way she criticized all the pelajar is very unprofessional. She reminds me of some of my school teachers back in primary schools. Or perhaps pelajar-pelajar AF5 deserves it.

no winning streak for Rob & Amber and Roger Federer

Rob & Amber were knocked out of the Amazing Race: All Stars sooner than I thought. The reality stars were favourites to win considering their winning streak in the previous legs. They made a series of mistakes and bad decision which lead to their downfall.

Rob made the wrong choice at the detour by choosing a harder task, then misspelled the word "Philippines" but insisted on hanging on to the task while almost half of the other teams already done with the other task. Luck was again not on their side as Charla & Mirna, who struggled throughout the competition, completed the Road Block first and raced to the pit stop leaving Rob & Amber in the last place. The rest of the teams must be very happy to hear Rob& Amber dismiss. This means that the chance to win a million dollars is wide open now. It's hard to predict who are the favourites to win.

Earlier of the day, Roger Federer also ended his 41-match winning streak. Federer arrived at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, having won seven consecutive tournaments and was considered an odds-on favourite to break the record of 47 straight matches. He was beaten by Guillermo Canas in the third round, with the result 7-5, 6-2.

American Idol - top 12

Here are the top 12 contestants who made it to the next round. It's a surprise because Haley and Sanjaya are still in the competition. It's sad because Sabrina Sloan who's a much better singer has been voted out.

The guest star for next week show is Diana Ross. Personally I would prefer to see some recent singers on the show.

American Idol - girls' night

The girls are definitely better than the guys. Here's my opinion about the show tonight.

Jordin Sparks
She's sweet and young but vocally she's way behind the other girls in the show. And I'm not really interested about her song choice or performance. I don't care if she leaves the show tomorrow. (6/10)

Sabrina Sloan
I think she's kinda hot and talented too. But sometimes I don' really feel her presence because she's being overshadowed by really charismatic contestants in this show. (7/10)

Antonella Barba
The media definitely help her a lot to get this far on the show. Her name is #1 top searches in Technorati. And with her smart song choice tonight (Corrine Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On), I think she's probably going to stay. Although she's not a great singer, I think her popularity is going to put her through another week. (5.5/10)

Haley S.
Haley who? I have to agree with Simon that nobody remember her name. I thought she already out last week. Probably I mistaken her for Alaina. I don't care what she sings. Vote her off the show tomorrow. (5/10)

Stephanie Edwards
She's really beautiful and elegant. And she can sing! I think she's able to go very far, probably top 3 in this show. If she wins, her records going to sell because she's very 'current'. I can imagine her being a big R&B star. (7.5/10)

Lakisha Jones
She's a power house but she kinda keep it low tonight. Anyway, I don't think I need to elaborate further because she's the best singer in this show. (8/10)

Gina Glocksen
Finally I see the real Gina Glocksen. I always thought she's a rocker at heart since her audition last year. And I'm glad she finally come out and sing an Evanescence's song. She can't match Amy Lee's singing but what the heck. This is the first time she belted out a rock song. Hope to see her perform that kinda genre in future show. (7/10)

Melinda Doolittle
And I thought she's a timid girl. But when she's on stage, gosh, she's a totally different person. She's 'fierce'. (8/10)

In my humble opinion, the girls are more talented and fun to watch. The guys are dull.

American Idol 6 - tonight's performance

I love this season's American Idol. This is the best season since season 3 (when Fantasia emerged the winner). And I'm rooting for the girls to win this year. Personally I want Lakisha to win. If the guys should ever win though, it has to be Blake 'Beatbox' Lewis.

I have never done review about this show before. So here's my opinion:

Blake Lewis
He is definitely the most popular guy in this competition. And now the group 311 is going to love him for promoting their song, All Mixed Up, on American Idol. It's great to hear some fresh songs from this guy. We had enough of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder songs on the show already. With Blake incorporating beatbox in his songs every week now (except the first week), it's just fun to watch him. (7/10)

Sanjaya Malakar
Oh, please! How could he spoiled my favourite John Mayer's song (Waiting for the World to Change)? I know he has a huge fan base and I won't be surprised if he's going to stay for another week. He's a nice boy but all the fanjayas need to accept that he's not very good on stage after all. (4/10)

Sundance Head
This guy did a good job last week but this week, he sucked. He's going home. Next. (4/10)

Chris R.
This guy is actually quite good but he's too 'Justin Timberlake'. The way he moves and sing resemble JT which is something I do not like. (7/10)

Jared Cotter
He is the sexiest guy on the show! I don't care if he's not the best singer. Hope he will stay on for a week or two. (6/10)

Brandon Rogers
His singing was good tonight. However I thought he was forgettable. I don't really have much things to say about him. (6.5/10)

Chris S.
I thought his audition was good. But when it comes to performance on stage, he doesn't stand out like his hairdo. And with his singing and song choice tonight, he's going home. (6/10)

Phil Stacey
If Chris S doesn't go home, Phil is. His performance tonight was so bad I couldn't believe it. It was a disaster with the song 'How Do I Live'. However he deserves another chance as he was pretty good in the previous weeks. (5/10)

Overall, the guys performance were pretty bad. Can't wait to hear the girls sing tomorrow.

applying for The Amazing Race Asia 2 like everyone else

I'm supposed to blog about the Amazing Race Asia 2 yesterday, which is open for application now. I read in Che-Cheh and Chingling blogs first.

Of course my buddy and I don't want to miss out this opportunity to apply. Syong and I did not apply for the first season because we thought we were not ready. Besides she never watch a single episode back then.

Now, this year we are determine to send in our application. Syong is ready ever since I persuaded her to join me at the AXN Amazing Mall Challenge last year. Yesterday, we talked about it for awhile and decided to start shooting the Amazing Race 2 audition tape this weekend.

Why we want to join? It's not about the money. It's not about fame. It's not that we want to prove to the world that Malaysians are the best for the second time. It is also not because we are a huge fan of the Amazing Race. Although all the above are actually true but frankly speaking we just want to be able to travel and participating in as much activities as we can for free :p

Syong and I have been participating treasure hunts recently to improve our driving and navigating skills as well as to sharpen our mind to be able to think out of the box. We have done quite a lot of travelling to new places without a map in Malaysia but we have not travel to overseas together in our lives.

We are not physically strong and we do not have model faces. But we don't mind to be as cunning as Andy & Laura. Or perhaps as smart and strategic-thinking as Mardy & Marsio. We are not afraid of anything except not being selected for the audition.

Monday is reality tv day

Majority people of the world hate Monday. They called it all sorts of names: 'Monday blue', 'manic Monday', etc. But I love Monday because it's reality tv day.

I haven't blog about The Amazing Race: All-Stars (TAR) and America's Next Top Model (ANTM) Cycle 7 in any of my post yet. Man, I'm glad the shows are back on Monday. I like the fact that the shows are shown back to back on Channel V (ANTM 8 p.m.) and AXN (TAR 9.p.m.) so I don't need to get out of my seat.

The Amazing Race: All-Star
Hey, I thought Rob & Amber are supposed to be the bad guys. Perhaps they have mellowed down a bit after getting married, eh? After two legs, I'm pretty confident that Rob & Amber team is going to win this thing. It seems that Rob is pretty determined not to end up in second place again.

Since Rob & Amber are no longer the bad guys, the beauty queens, Dustin & Kandice are taking over the roles to be the #1 bad girls on this show. I wonder how America chose their beauty queens. Perhaps we should ask Jennifer Hudson because she knows why the Americans always make the wrong choices.

By the way, someone please tell David & Mary to be realistic a bit because nobody is going to help you all the way in a race that worth a million bucks. In a tight race to the pit stop last week (week 2), Charla & Mirna did the right thing, that is to overtake everyone else and race as quickly as possible to the pit stop. Who wants to be eliminated? David & Mary, the Cho brothers were just helping you guys in the previous season for their own benefits.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 7
How come Tyra Banks become so 'aunty' already? People said that she's getting fat and I guess it is quite true. But she's still beautiful and 'fierce'.

Some of the girls in this cycle are pretty anorexic-looking especially the twins, Amanda and Michelle. They are not really good role models for young girls. Besides, unlike previous cycles, there are no plus-sized model this year.

So far I haven't seen any ridiculous challenges yet. I must say that the scariest and most ridiculous task of all seasons, the previous cycle where the models were asked to walk on high platforms was the scariest moment. Danielle, who eventually won, actually twisted her foot during the task. It sounds easy but you should watch that episode (if you haven't) to understand what I am talking about.

They did mention that Megan resembles Kim from Cycle 5, right? They share something in common. You probably already know about Kim but yes, Megan is gay too. So does Michelle, the twin sister with better potential.

That's about it now. Until further review of the shows.

TARA - Congrats JoeZab!

Some people don't think Joe Jer & Zabrina deserve to win The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) 1 compare to Andrew & Syeon or even Sandy Francesca.

Well, I have to say that the girls are able to keep their composure and played it smart. You can be winning all the other legs but if you are not cool (and smart) in the final race, chances are you are going to give away the #1 spot to someone who does. And this makes JoeZab the winner of TARA. They played it smart while Andrew&Syeon and SanFran struggled to find their way out of Kuching to Santubong. Instead of hiring a taxi (they were given USD150 at the beginning of the race) like what JoeZab did, Andrew&Syeon stucked with their Lonely Planet guide.

Anyway, kudos to the all-girl Malaysian team!

7 changes I would like to see on the amazing race

Be it the US or the Asian edition, there are a few changes I would like to see on the show.

1. There's a lack of transparency in the non-elimination leg. The producers can eliminate or not eliminate whoever they want. For example, if I'm not wrong, BJ & Tyler from season 9 survived twice from being eliminated and eventually won. In the Asian edition, it's very clear that the producers would like to keep "favourites" Sandy & Francesca from being eliminated in the first round.
2. I wonder why must there be models on The Amazing Race (TAR) and The Amazing Race Asia (TARA)? There are a lot of beautiful people out there and they are not necessary models.
3. Choosing Allan Wu as the host of TARA is obviously a mistake. This guy is so stiff and fake. If you watch AXN Xtreme Macau, the host Alex Niu, in my humble opinion, did a better job than Allan. Well, there's no way to regret now. Looking at the success of TARA probably we just have to accept him and see some improvement over time.
4. I'm glad that season 10 omitted the "strip all cash" from contestants who survived the non-elimination leg. TARA should stop stripping cash too in the future season because I think begging people for money isn't very nice.
5. The contestants rely too much on the locals and taxi drivers to bring them to places instead of self-navigation. Perhaps the producers should implement new rule to disallow locals to ride or join the contestants in their car. I prefer to watch contestants display their navigation skill rather than paying taxi drivers to bring them to places.
6. There are too many advertisement and product placement in the recent TAR. As for TARA, we can see them every week from Ford to Sony Walkman MP3 and MSN. During the last leg on TARA, contestant need to take a picture of their partner while performing the jump at Sky Tower with Sony Ericsson Cybershot camera. And the week before, teams have to record a video with Sony HD Cam.
7. I hope to see alliance being formed in TARA. I'm not sure why no teams form alliance to oust the others. It will be more fun than seeing teams minding their own business. The Six Packs alliance (Cho bros, Kentucky and Alabama) of season 10 did a great job and went really far.

project runway 3 - where's the good fashion and integrity?

I've been watching Project Runway (PR) since the first season. I love the show just like what I love about the Amazing Race. PR is a serious competition where real talent wins and you don't see drama like other reality tv shows.

However, PR begins to change its direction this season. I'm fed up with all the arguments and the fact that the producers are eliminating the 'good' people and keeping the 'bad' ones. I'm so mad when Alison was kicked off from the show in the "Waste Not, Want Not" challenge. Vincent was supposed to be eliminated. His model could barely walk in that long dress (it doesn't look like one). Perhaps the producers loved his antique with Angela. And I have no idea how come Angela is still in this competition despite her hideous talent.

PR, please cut the drama and focus more on how the designers do their sketches, pattern drafting, pinning, cutting, sewing, fitting, etc.

project runway 3 - 5 days a week

Can you believe it that Channel 11 Discovery Travel & Living is showing Project Runway (PR) 3 every weekday since Monday @ 9.00 p.m.? How I wish I don't need to wait every week for The Amazing Race (both US and Asia version) and America's Next Top Model.

I don't know much about fashion but at least after watching the show for two seasons I learn how to differentiate between a couture and a bad dress. PR is very realistic because you see real designers working very hard to create real dresses eventhough I'm not sure if it's possible for a designer to come up with a high fashion dress in two days.

So far, my favourite designers on PR3 has to be Jeffery and Alison. Although Jeffery was bottom two last night, almost got eliminated, the judges loved him because they could see 'Santino' in him. During his audition on Monday's show, I thought his design was great, very rock 'n' roll and over-the-top. And Alison, the pretty blond girl, she has an impressive and detailed portfolio but I can't remember what's her design last night.

Looking forward to tonight's show.

tennis, reality shows and school holiday

Tennis...
It's quite disappointing because Nadal lost to Federer for the second time and yesterday match is definitely a painful one. Why not, it's a sad ending to year 2006.

After losing to Federer in Wimbledon final, Nadal is not on his top performance like what he did earlier this year. Nadal is not 100% fit and he made too many unforced errors. However, I must give credit to Nadal for creating some great, risky shots.

On the other hand, Federer is like always classy but boring. I don't know why, I have great respect for him but at the same time I hate watching him play especially on hard courts when most of the time you don't see much from him except great serve.

Hopefully Nadal will come back next year and give Federer a better challenge.

Reality shows...
The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) is not bad at all! There's nothing better than looking forward to Monday and Thursday catching up on TAR (US) and TARA. And oh, on Monday, there's America's Next Top Model (ANTM) Cycle 6 which is a must-see show. As a fan of reality shows, these two shows cannot be missed. Even though after so many seasons, there's always something new you can look forward to.

Unlike The Apprentice, which I give two thumbs down, ANTM and TAR offers you diverse reality stars, lotsa unpredictable twists and tonnes of dramas. All I can say about The Apprentice is it's pathetic, boring and old just like Donald Trump.

School holiday...
Finally it's school holiday and I can totally concentrate on my writing and publishing work. I still owe my publisher the Science manuscripts. Better get it all done today!

The Amazing Race Asia - model teams only need to apply?

So the Amazing Race Asia (TARA) has revealed its teams. And I'm not impressed. The reason why I'm so into the Amazing Race show is because of the diversity of its team members. You get to see old couples, handicapped people who overcome their inability to compete just like everyone else, people from various backgrounds, etc. However, TARA gives me a different impression.

Looking at the participants in TARA, I almost thought it is a model-searching / beauty pagent kind of contest. And not to mention there are many gwai-lou looking people in this show. Come on, Asia is so big and this is the best teams that you can come up with? By the way, how come so many people from the entertainment industry?

I really hope to see more seasons of TARA in the future (because I'm interested to join one but now I'm not sure if I should send my audition tape because I don't have a model look). TARA must come up with better ways to promote the show and reach out to more people.

By the way, TAR 10 is such a great show. So far my favourite team is Peter and Sarah. I admire Peter the most because he has been so supportive to Sarah who is an amputee. I love to watch David and Mary (especially her) as well because they are small town people but get along so well with Tom and Terry, whom they said the first gay people they ever know. Too bad for Duke and Lauren, the father and daugther team who's out so fast from TAR last night. I wanted to badly for the single moms, Lyn and Karlyn to be out from this show. I don't have good impression on them ever since they refused to help Tyler and James when their jeep broke down in Mongolia last week. My bet for who to win? Definitely Tyler and James because of their consistency.