Live & Loud

Think James Morrison perched on a stool, with his trademark guitar resting on one knee, pouring his soul into a song; for you. Look around you and you see everyone in rapture listening to him, some waving light sticks in the air, some waving lighters. The song comes to an end and the roar of applause and whoops are overwhelming, demanding an encore. This is what you’re in for, but it isn’t only James Morrison, other stars of unplugged fame will be part of this unforgettable show.

-excerpt from liveshowinmalaysia.blogspot.com

I never did expect to go but when Kak Yasmin told me her mum, Aunty Mawarni, couldn't go and was offering her ticket, I thought,

"Okay, why not. I mean, it is James Morrison and from what Kak Meera and I saw on Live from Abbey Road, he seems like a good live performer".

But OH MY GOD.


Good was an INSANE UNDERSTATEMENT. This guy was.. I don't even know if BRILIANNT does him justice. He was way way way way above even that. God, James Morrison was SPECTECULAR.

I don't think any of us who went for the Live & Loud Acoustic thought it'd be as amazing as it had turned out. Honestly, so many things had gone terribly wrong that day. From arriving late because of the horrible traffic jam, to sitting right at the back of the concert hall, really, it was one stroke of bad luck after the other.

Once James Morrison came on though, after two songs I think, we decided to stand up front. Kak Meera and Kak Yasmin went first, initially only cause Kak Meera wanted to get a good shot of him, but then when Kak Yasmin came back for me, I knew they'd found a good spot for us to watch the performance. Oh man, and would you believe it, it was an area directly facing the front of the stage.

I can't even begin to describe to you how mind blowing the whole thing was. James Morrison is not only an incredibly amazing performer, he's also a great entertainer. The way he interacted with the crowd, slipped in jokes and little stories in between his songs. One memorable moment was when this one guy shouted out "James, I love you in a sexual kind of way!!" and James laughed and said "Oh, I love you too, in a non sexual kind of way that a man could love another man". Oh, and another was when the crowd called out for him to sing "This Boy", he teasingly said "Which boy?", "What boy?" and then this little kid shouted "This Boy!", which made him laugh cause well, for one, I don't think he expected a child to be there. And so he sang "This Boy", dedicating it to the little guy.

There were so many more moments like that. I could go on forever, but I think you get the picture. The best part? After he left the stage, a lot of people started chanting, "We want more, we want more!" and just when the chanting started to die out, cause you know, I don't think anyone thought it was going to happen, he came on. You can imagine, everyone went crazy, left their seats, and we were right in front of the stage. Well, to be exact, Kak Meera and Kak Yasmin were right in front, I was more in the second row but still, so close, soooooooooo close.

I still can't get over last night. It was the most satisfying performance I have ever witnessed. Somehow, I know these are two totally different things, but it kinda makes up for missing the Muse concert. I just feel so extremely grateful to Aunty Mawarni and Kak Yasmin. Not forgetting of course, her two aunts, Kak Mimi and Kak JuJu, who drove and accompanied us.

I wasn't to say a huge James Morrison fan before but heck now, I'll follow him to the ends of the earth. Figuratively speaking. But on a more serious note, I feel like I can really appreciate his songs now, mostly because of knowing the stories behind them. It makes you see how good this guy really is.

I'll leave you then with this short clip of "Last Goodbye", James Morisson's final song of the night..

It was such a blessing that Kak Meera managed to get in front to record this =)

It’s almost impossible to write about everything that’s been going on since my last entry and I'm pretty sure you don't want to know everything. So what say we just skim the surface here?

From where we left off then, college.

Well.., college has been good to me so far. Though already it has thrown in my face a number of rather crappy things, I've been receiving the good bits too. Fair enough, I suppose.

Towards the end of this semester, I think I’ve made some progress with adapting, fitting in, generally just getting used to the place. Intec’s a pretty interesting place to be really.

That said however, I'm not exactly rushing to go back, if you know what I mean. Sem break's finally here, and well, it's time to kick back and relax for a change.

Seriously, you wouldn't believe how much studying can be done when you're living in a hostel. Too much, honestly. It actually hits a rather depressing stage sometimes. Don't get me wrong though. It's not like that's all we do. We have our share of fun. Guess just not as much as we used to back in school. I dunno, somehow, there's so much pressure riding on, well, everything really.

It's the scholarship thing, I suppose. We're so afraid that if we make a slight slip, the scholarship's going to be yanked from right underneath us. Which is, of course, a tad bit of an exaggeration. You would have to be screwing up real bad for your sponsor to want to kick you off the program.

Still... I personally am finding it hard not to worry. Here's where my dad would say "What don't you worry about?"

Okay okay, 'nuff bout that. Anymore and I might end up leaving this and curling up in bed.

Next one then.

I was a little concern about how our Raya celebrations would be this time around. The past couple years, it hasn't been feeling too great. After we lost my mum's dad, the family kinda lost a reason to go back to Penang too.

It was like breaking a tradition we had going on since.. well, for as long as I can remember.

This year, things changed once again. The morning of our 50th Independence Day, my grandfather passed away. With that, we broke another tradition. No more would we gather at my uncle’s place, where my grandparents used to live, instead my dad and his siblings would now take turns hosting first Raya.

For the record, all went well. My dad took the first shift. It was a change everyone welcomed and it was nice to be able to share our first Raya with both friends and family.

I guess you could say, Raya turned out so much better than any of us had expected.

We went back to Penang too this year. It felt really really good. We stayed at this gorgeous hotel with my aunt and uncle (and their two adorable kids), visited relatives we hadn't seen in years and all in all, just had a really great time.

When you think about it, so many things have changed in such a small span of time.

It's hard to believe a whole semester has gone by and god, 2007 is almost over. I wish I could say I have no regrets but then there's just so many things I wish I could have done, so much I should have said. But, it’s as they say, you live and learn.

Live and learn.