vanidah imran!

puteri and i were walking towards the lobby of istana budaya, after mamma mia! show when suddenly i was so happy and glad to saw vanidah imran right infront of my big eyes! weee...

i dunno what to say but when she turned around, i braved myself to poke her shoulder and asked her to take a pic with me. i know that she was rushing to go out, probably her husband was waiting for her or something, but i don't care! she looks stunning although she just came in orange blouse and jeans with black shawl. i like her features as well— very beautiful.

i remember she won the first sehati berdansa programme last year. they made up a good couples though. and they have a blog— Ke Bintang! — The Official Blog Of Rashidi Ishak & Vanidah Imran; by the way i don't think we can expect much as they find that blogging is a great way to keep in touch and update their friends and fans of what's happening to their latest project and stuffs!

kuE' note:
look for other celebrity pics on this blog here.

girls day out(?) at mamma mia!...

most of you people have already knew by now, that puteri won a pair of tickets to mamma mia! at istana budaya. that's why we only went back home at the last minutes of school holidays. the show was at 3pm on sunday liao!

here is what kuE' say about mamma mia! —

great night out:
guaranteed (so long as you like abba, spandex and glitter)
morning after effect:
in the loft searching for your abba greatest hits album
recommend to friends:
could be embarrassing that you enjoyed it that much
see again: endlessly
best bit: does your mother know
if you like this, you'll love:
hairspray | joseph | grease | dirty dancing

the original 'jukebox musical', which by definition makes it unique and brilliant in its own very special, very glittery, sort of way.

but ignore the sniping and snearing that has been aimed at the long line of copycat musicals attempting to do what mamma mia! achieved. we all wish we could have had an idea as smart as this, and hats off to judy craymer for her tenacity and for pulling together abba's great catalogue of one smash hit song after another with a witty and engaging story that is all very '90s— a mother, a daughter, and 3 possible dads!

let's not get hung up on the plot too much, shakespeare it isn't. all you need to know is that its fun, moves along at a pace and keeps the suspense going through two hours and 30 minutes without flagging. a deceptively simple set gives the back drop to the cast to let them showcase the sheer energy and excitement of the music.

about halfway through the first half you find yourself playing the 'guess the next song' game as the plot and dialogue guides you on. and then you graduate on to the intermission when you and your companions work out which songs haven't been sung yet and organize a sweepstake of 'which character gets to sing the winner takes it all'.

the real success of mamma mia! is of course the canvas it creates to show the musical genius of benny andersson & björn ulvaeus. they never set out to be a rodgers & hammerstein or work for the stage, but the quality of their work stands up to all comparisons and the theatrical setting gives new meanings to some very familiar lyrics. the most telling moment of all is the beautiful 'slipping through my fingers' in which the mother/daughter relationship at the heart of the show reaches its conclusion.

but enough of that! this is basically a party and if you're not on your feet dancing along to the big finale then you went to the wrong theatre.

audience:
the ideal 'girls night/day out' musical, particularly for mothers and daughters of all ages. for the smart men this is the perfect birthday treat/valentine's gift to show you care and can get in touch with your feeling side! and if you're a man that can't help being in touch with your feeling side, then you'll love every minute. children under 10 may find the show loud and at 2 hours 30 minutes it will lose their attention.

theatre:
istana budaya, kuala lumpur is one of the world famous theatres of kuala lumpur. it is the national theatre of kuala lumpur. this theatre is responsible for promoting different forms of malaysian theatrical art. it also stages dance, plays and musical programs regularly. this important attraction of the city is located in jalan tun razak area of kuala lumpur.

various influence of malay culture is seen on the architectural design of istana budaya. the shape of the building looks like a typical malay house. moreover, the base of the building looks exactly like a floating malay kite. this building has a malay touch in this infrastructure. the istana budaya has four stages. these stages can be adjusted according to the needs of the performances. this is a show that you cannot get close enough to so front row seats are highly recommended.

pics/video filming are strictly prohibidden, but being a blogger i am, tell me people... how could i resist taking at least one pic (above) inside the theatre! hehee... and since pic paints a thousand words, you could see of how wonderful and fantastic the show was.

puteri has collected her tickets!

its been exactly a week since puteri won a pair of tickets for mamma mia! the smash hit musical at istana budaya (official website here). finally a customer's rep from the bank called puteri this morning to collect the tickets from him. so off we went there this afternoon, had lunch at a secret recipe's outlet around there as well. tqsm for the tickets! especially to sheryl, if not for her who invited us there... :P

we know that we gonna enjoy the show this sunday at 3pm. looks like we will only go back to kuale after the show ya... and the kiddos will start schooling the day after.

its nothing much to worry about the school's preparation though as we have already bought the school's stuff i.e. uniform, shoes etc., about a week after we came back from our kuching holidays. i guess its only the matter of resting times before the school starts. i know i know... its gonna be quite tough for the kiddos also us parents, as you people could see we have been lazying around the school holidays for quite some time. now is the time for us to readjust our daily schedules hehee...

*kuE' blogging location: starbucks outlet at borders, the curve.

the day we got the tickets!...

yes! yes! yes!... puteri won a pair of tickets for mamma mia! the smash hit musical at istana budaya, kuala lumpur wohoo!!!... she sang a part of gimme! gimme! gimme! at the cast' special appearance in damansara heights this afternoon, and voila!... she was one of the 10 lucky winners to get the tickets. while some of the lucky ones got the chance to win an autographed cd via lucky draws.

then there were some autograph signing and photography session with the cast of mamma mia! and of course we didn't let go the chance including yours truly ehem...

this is all thanks to my dear sheryl for inviting us today. we really had a great time. thank you so much sis from the bottom of our hearts mwahhh...

penangan mamma mia!

i had a quick nap with megat at the family room yesterday evening. and upon awoke, i realized that puteri was taking her nap too on the sofa. she was online earlier. then i saw this on the coffee table—


i immediately thought that it must be puteri who went down the basement and took the ABBA dvd from her tok's collections (take note that my father still have collections of ABBA's old records). so we happily watched the dvd together last night. well i guess if it's not because of mamma mia, i don't think its easy to make them listen to the 70's kind of music ya... besides that i also found out that puteri has download mp3 files of ABBA songs in to her fon and iTunes. in fact both puteri and megat can sing-along to some of ABBA hits already by now :)

mamma mia premiere screening by nuffnang

i had the opportunity to watch mamma mia at a private screening last night at gsc gurney plaza in penang, before the movie will be released some time this week. it’s all thanks to nuffnang for giving away THREE (3) tickets instead of 2 as i was among the pioneers who wrote in to them for the movie; that i got the chance to bring both my darling puteri and megat.

us, during registration; as captured by 5Xmom

so people don’t you all think nuffnang has been treated me very well all this while. NO! they are not paying me for saying this. what are you waiting for? go and register with them now here.


now talking about mamma mia the movie, this romantic comedy was interesting to watch besides the fact that i cringed at hearing most of the actors/actresses sing. when everyone was not messing up the ABBA hits, the movie was rather enjoyable. amanda seyfried’s character decides to get married and wants her father to give her away, however there are three men who are possibly her daddy. if that isn’t juicy drama, then i don’t know what is.

on the other hand, the movie was the bomb… it was soooo good… i couldn’t anticipate anything!!! it was amazing… it was also such a well cast movie… everyone did their thing… except maggie g was incredibly boring.

this is one of the few plays i’ve actually seen, which ended up being great… it’s funny to think of ol’ pierce taking a stab at singing, yeeesh…

even at first megat thought that he won’t like it, as he has been told by his lovely mama that the movie’s soundtracks were basically out of ABBA hits from the 70’s duh!... he was wrong when at the end he found that the movie was rather interesting enough with the wonderful hits.

today is 20.08.2008

blimey! its only almost half a day that i realized today's date is 20.08.2008. i was like... arrgghhh... i like those numbers :)

just like the date 08.08.2008., i am sure this date is very special to some also i.e. marriage, newborn, etc. whatever it is i wish everyone all the very best on this one of a kind date.

-----

actually i have just came back from our 4D3N trips to kl last night. i really missed blogging sooooo much! so many pics to load, so many stories to tell... i will leave them when i am ready to do so.

but anyhow i can't resist myself to blog about this, as soon as i found out that there will be a premiere screening of “mamma mia! the movie” by nuffnang in two locations!

date : 22nd of September 2008 (monday)

time : 9pm

venue : GSC one utama (new wing)

hall : 9

pax : 250

date : 22nd of september 2008 (monday)

time : 9pm

venue : GSC gurney plaza penang

hall : 8

pax : 180

all you have to do to get a pair of tickets to watch this splendid musical sensation is write a blog post with the title “mamma mia! the movie” and talk about what you look forward in this movie. you can talk about ABBA, meryl streep, pierce brosnan or anything related! go here to find out more about this. i have submitted mine (read it here). so what are you waiting for nuffies? the movie will be released in malaysia on the 25th of september 2008, and we will get to watch it three days earlier! insya allah...

p/s to all you nuffies!!! please please please... nang it! occay? tqsm! mwahhh...

“mamma mia! the movie”

to swipe a phrase from my other favourite band, we are now into ABBA’s “imperial phase”, their shift from one-hit wonders to the world’s biggest pop group sudden and complete. the world had, in fact, been patient with ABBA—“mamma mia” is the fourth single from their self-titled album, the others - “so long”, “i do i do i do i do i do”, “s.o.s.”—having been each more popular than the last. that triad looks like an evolution now, but they were all on the same record, so the development is in the band’s (and stig andersson’s) understanding of what they were commercially capable of: a play-safe “waterloo” throwback, a lilting bit of light pop and then the fully unleashed melodrama of “s.o.s.”, indelible melodic hooks melded perfectly to the song’s emotional beats.

“mamma mia” is more iconic than “s.o.s.” but it’s not as good. the ABBA sound still has a bit of glam in it-- those glittery smeary guitars over the intro; the boys getting near the mic—and this would gradually fade, but this record is a mish-mash of ideas done well here but better elsewhere in their catalogue. the nervy stacatto piano bed, for instance, shows up again with more confidence on “money money money”. the shouty “JUST ONE LOOK!” hook calls back to “waterloo”. the record’s best moment—that sudden sweep into “yes, i’ve been broken hearted...”—is its most ABBA-ish, showing their flair for (forgive my lack of technical terms!) inserting ballad-y hooks into upbeat songs. and finally, i don’t think the lyrics are up to their later standards - the “mamma mia!” refrain itself feels like a working title to fit the melody which just hung around because they couldn’t think of anything better.

some people’s tolerance for ABBA is low because their music is so inescapable—i respect that point of view but if anything i feel i don’t hear enough ABBA, there are swathes of marvellous andersson/ulvaeus songs which get overlooked in favour of the usual five or six. but of those five or six, this is the one where i can most sympathise with the ABBA-weary: its lack of an emotional catch for me makes it more vulnerable to overplay.

from what i understand, the four members of pop group ABBA have attended the swedish premiere of mamma mia, the film which features 22 of their songs. several thousand fans cheered as benny andersson, bjorn ulvaeus, anni-frid lyngstad and agnetha faltskog walked down the red carpet in stockholm. lyngstad and faltskog also embraced meryl streep, one of the movie's stars. the group had not met up since the original mamma mia musical opened in sweden in february 2005. they have not even performed in public since 1986, 12 years after shooting to fame by winning the eurovision song contest with their track waterloo.

owh... how i can't wait to watch this myself—
its the story of donna (streep) who is about to attend the wedding of sophie (amanda seyfried), the spirited daughter she's raised alone. for sophie's wedding, donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends—practical and no-nonsense rosie (julie walters) and wealthy, multi-divorcee tanya (christine baranski) —from her one-time backing band, donna and the dynamos. but sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own.

so what now for this trend? are musicals back? maybe. will romantic comedies get sillier, raunchier and more musical? possibly. will hollywood being paying more attention to the female audience—almost certainly. which means some more interesting, entertaining, counter-programmed summer movies.