Just Fan: Rafael Nadal featuring HCFoo

Recently, I was featured on one of the episodes of Just Fan, a programme on Trace Sports HD channel.

Thanks to my former employer KDU University College and Taylor's University for allowing us to run the Giant Tennis Shot promo for the ATP 250 Malaysian Open 2011.

The French TV production crew who shot this video tagged along with us. If you’re interested in video production, there are online classes available that can get you started.

This is just a version I've made for the universities. There will be another version featuring my family, friends and colleagues.

Tennis players when they were young

I thought this youtube video is pretty cool (except for the music). It is a compilation of most of the current top tennis players childhood pictures.

Here are the list of the players again:
Andre Agassi
Pete Sampras
Tommy Haas
David Ferrer
Marcos Baghdatis
James Blake
Richard Gasquet
Andy Roddick
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Marat Safin/Dinara Safina
Serena/Venus Williams
Steffi Graf
Monica Seles
Lindsay Davenport
Tatiana Golovin
Nadia Petrova
Amelie Mauresmo
Kim Clijster
Martina Hingis
Anna Kournikova
Elena Dementieva
Ana Ivanovic
Svetlena Kuznetsova
Maria Sharapova
Justine Henin

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.

Welcoming Rafael Nadal to Malaysia

And to Richard Gasquet too!

I was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at about 5.30 p.m. waiting for my tennis idol, Rafael Nadal to show up. Earlier on, I was in KL to pick up my TGI Friday's winning voucher before proceed to Ritz Carlton Hotel. To my disappointment, a friend from Astro who apparently preparing for the brief appearance told me that event at the hotel has been cancelled.

I called up Anna, the organizer, and she has been very helpful by letting me know that Nadal's flight has been delayed and I would be in time to catch him at KLIA. Hence I drove all the way to KLIA and waited for hours at the arrival hall. Nadal and Gasquet did not appear at the arrival hall but instead proceed to the VIP lounge where all the reporters and TV stations are there for a press conference.

I managed to get to know the location of the lounge and waited outside. I did get some footage where Nadal and Gasquet walked out from the press conference.

I also managed to get a photo with Nadal but the one with Gasquet didn't work out. And I got Nadal's signature on my ticket too!

What a day! And my dream and campaign finally realized. Thank you guys for your support. Now I don't need to put a fake picture with Nadal anymore. As for the number of comments 'Vamos VMY2007', I've received 22 of them (out of the targetted 200 comments) which means worth only RM22 for charity. Anyway, I will still donate RM200 for charity, which I will keep you guys updated in this blog very soon.

By the way, I was too busy chasing for Nadal, I've forgotten about Richard Gasquet.

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.

fell asleep @ the cinema again

Okay, it's true this is not my first, second or third time sleeping while watching a movie at the cinema. Most of the time it happened at the cinema in Genting.

Just now I went to catch the movie, Blades of Glory (BOG) at GSC 1 Utama. I'm a fan of Will Farrell but man, this movie is not that hilarious. Even Wild Hogs was 5 times better than this one. There are some entertaining and funny moments but BOG is just as disappointed as Mr Bean's Holiday.



I was already having headache (real headache and it's not caused by Paypal) since morning and working until 9.30 p.m. By the time I was in the cinema for the 11.20 p.m. show I was already tired. before even half of the show, I fell asleep until the show was over.

paolo nutini - the next big thing

I don't feel like blogging on weekend but I'm just so crazy about this song called Rewind sung by Paolo Nutini I want to share it with you guys. You can listen to the song which is on the side bar too. Paolo Nutini is a newcomer in the UK, gaining popularity in the Europe and now making his wave in the US.

Yes, this is another song about ex. But this is as good and as teary as James Blunt's You're Beautiful. This song is taken from his album, These Streets. I haven't heard about this song on the local radio yet but I'm sure Paolo Nutini is going to be the next big thing. Don't say I didn't warn you.




Updates: I just went to Victoria Music Station at Atria Shopping Complex and managed to get a copy of Paolo Nutini's album, These Street. So, his CD is available in Malaysia already.

Tyra 'Goprah' Banks: who's her next victim?

The other day when meeting my ex-coursemate/housemate, Lily, she said she did dropped by at my blog too. She told me my blog was serious. Errr... yeah it's true. Since school time I can't write anything fictional or funny. I always chose to write serious and factual stuff (if you must know I'm definitely not a blogger liar).

Well, here is something entertaining (but still something factual). I always like Tyra Banks especially her show America's Next Top Model which I never miss a single cycle. And you know Tyra has a talk show called The Tyra Banks Show. So Katharine McPhee, the first runner up for American Idol 5, was on her show and guess what Tyra did? She felt Katharine up. Check out this clip.



That's not the end of it. Guess who's her latest victim? When Tyra was on Rosie O'Donnell show, The View, Tyra gave Rosie a serious groping! Eeughh... Haha... I wonder who's next?!



You know what they call Tyra now? Since Tyra always thinks herself as the next Oprah, people started calling her Goprah.

Kaer's album 'Menjelma'

I think I should say something about Kaer's debut album in my blog. After all, his album is worth mentioning and I want to show my support to local artistes.

If you do not know who's Kaer, he's one of the student in Akademi Fantasia 2. Although he did not made it far in the reality show, I must say that he's one of the most talented contestant in that show. I did tell myself I'll definitely going to get his album if he's going to come up with one.

So Kaer had his first album recently. I'm so glad he sticks to his R&B cum Indonesian-influenced music. You know what? This guy is talented and you definitely don't want to miss his songs from this album called 'Menjelma'.

There's a combination of slow and fast songs in this album. The album started off with a fast paced number, Menjelma. Then of course there's his hit song, Izinku Pergi. You must check out the music video of this song.



One of his song that gives me goosebump is Dalam Kenangan written by Azlan Abu Hassan who also penned the song Izinku Pergi. Other songs that worth listening are Sinar Cahaya, Apabila, Hilangnya Cahaya, Kembali Bersama 2004.

So, if you like to listen to Anuar Zain, you should listen to Kaer too. For more information about Kaer, check out his myspace site.

Donald Trump won @ Wrestlemania 23 and got 'stunned'

As expected Donald Trump won the Battle of the Billionaires and Vince McMahon had to go home bald.

After the shave, while celebrating Donald Trump's win, Steve Austin a.k.a Stone Cold gave Trump an unexpected Stunner! However, the Stunner was totally off. Either Trump did not practice enough or chicken out in the last minute.



This is the impact on Donald Trump after the Stunner.

Avril Lavigne trying to punk some Mandarin

If you have been listening to the radio, you know Avril Lavigne the necktie-wearing skater girl recently came up with a single called "Girlfriend" with an extremely catchy chorus ("Hey hey you you/I don't like your girlfriend/No way no way/I think you need a new one/Hey hey you you/I could be your girlfriend"). Check out her video here:



Avril is also delivering "Girlfriend" in 7 different languages including Japanese and Mandarin. Apparently a huge portion of her fans are from Asia. Listen to Avril trying to punk up some Mandarin in the chorus which goes something like this ("wo hui bu hui shi ni de nu peng you"). It's hilarious but she did a fairly good job.

Rosie apologized about the "ching-chong" incident

Recently a well-spoken poet named Beau Sia has responded to Rosie O’Donnell’s racist “ching chong” incident via YouTube:

Rosie responded and apologized in her blog. Here's an excerpt:

2 beau
an open response
to ur informative creative
and quite beautiful video

i apologize
for any and all pain
caused to any and all
by my comments
ignorance
lack of compassion - empathy
understanding

u r right
i didnt get it

i know
my intent
was not to harm
yet obviously i did

there ya have it

John Legend - P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)

I'm a huge fan of John Legend's music. Here's his new single P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care). It is a great song. I saw the music video on MTV yesterday and I thought it was very exotic. Here's a blog review of the music video.

adam neate - the unusual street artist

I watched the CNN news yesterday and they featured the story about an unusual street artist, Adam Neate. What differentiate him from other graffiti artists is he leaves his canvases in the streets.

Adam used recycled cardboard boxes as canvases. Most people on the streets do not bother (or perhaps I should say appreciate) his artworks until they were told that Adam's work worth ₤10,000 a piece.

Despite his new found fame, he will continue to do what he normally do (leaving his artworks on the streets).

Here's a video of him at the HYPE exhibition.

celebrity tutors wanted

If you read the Education pullout on Sunday Star last week, you definitely won't missed the article entitled Wanted: Sexy Tutors.

Tuition business in Hong Kong is very competitive. Almost every tuition centre able to predict what questions will be asked in exams. Hence, the head of Modern Education, Ken Ng said that to differentiate themselves from other competitors, they sell sex appeal (of course along with teaching ability and knowledge).

Well, Ken Ng is not really a good looking tutor himself. But chances are you won't missed the dashing former model, Frankie Tam, who teaches Computer and Information Technology. This guy, a celebrity in Hong Kong, has a very impressive resume both academically and professionally.



Our local tuition business is equally competitive. I don't mind if the business owners here use the same marketing tactics (or gimmicks) to attract students as long as they provide quality education. I would love to see the emergence of some fresh celebrity tutors instead of the boring Sunny Yee.

james blunt's performance on oprah

I am not really a James Blunt fan until I saw his performance on Oprah. I missed the show many months ago until I watched the repeat last week.

Seriously I've never known any new singers who can sing so intensely like him. Most importantly his song and lyrics reminds me of someone special who got married late last year.

James Blunt sang two songs on Oprah show. Here he is performing "Goodbye My Lover". Loved it so much.