Where's The Party 2012 In Penang

It's December already! It was just a month ago I was in Penang joining the Where's The Party 2012 winners from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong to celebrate this epic event organized by Carlsberg in Hard Rock Hotel Penang. It's been almost 3 years plus I had not been to Penang and now thanks to Carlsberg I was able to come again and also visit Hard Rock Hotel.

The medias and VIPs depart were all gathered in the Carlsberg brewery and were driven in a few tour buses to Penang. I was in bus no. 3 and the host there is Karl. He's there to break the ice and keep us entertained.

Traffic was not too good that day so it took us about 6 hours to reach our hotel. Once we reached, we were greeted by Carlsberg ambassadors and Joey G. There was not much time for me to rest. After checking-in to my room, I took a quick shower and then I depart to Hard Rock Hotel next door for the press conference.

The Carlsberg Managing Directors from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong giving their speeches and answering the Q & A. This is the first Where's The Party event that includes three countries from Asia region.

Miss World Malaysia 2012 Yvonne Lee was my bus mate during the trip.

We were then introduced to some of the performers that will be performing at the event later that night. Some of those that appeared at the press con are DJ Mayumi, Love Cubic from Korea, Edmund Leong, Rubberband and

I was lucky to be able to get a photo with Edmund Leong. Thank you Jackie for helping me.

After the press conference, we all moved to the beach to where Where's the Party is being held.

I went straight to the food area where a lot of local Penang food is being served. Hungry sial. Before I step in the that area, I bumped in to Chutipond who is working as one of the Carlsberg ambassador there.

Taking photos is part of the job as a blogger in an event.

Shawn Lee was there to beat-box for us.

RED FM DJ Linora was there to enjoy her off mic session.

Besides food. There were games too to keep the guests entertained.

Lucky Tim with his Malaysian Hottest Bloggers girls.

Nothing like free flow of Carlsberg to keep us going all night long.

The guests were all into it. Enjoying the music and atmosphere. Epic is right.

The MCs of the night are Patricia K and Joey G. This is Simon S reporting from Where's the Party 2012 at Hard Rock Hotel beach.

The crowds went wild when Mad August ditched out the currently most popular song in the world, PSY's Gangnam Style. They all started dancing to the song.

Edmund Leong and Rubberband came out after Mad August aka Crossfire's performance. He sang some fast songs and also a song original sang by Beyond, 俾面派对. The party goers asked him to sing one of his famous song, 七友 but he told them that the song is not suitable to be sang here. LOL.

All in all, this is a great party. The best thing is we can drink all the Carlsberg till drunk because we can just walk back to our hotel. Carlsberg encourage us to drink responsibly so no one is driving that night. I really enjoy myself that night. Hope next year I'll get to go again.

Arthur's Day Celebration at Beer Factory

This year's Guinness Arthur's Day was celebrated in 3 different venues. Namely Souled Out, Laundry Bar and The Beer Factory. Each venue will have different singer. Since I wanted to see Justin Lo, so I chose to come to The Beer Factory in Sunway Giza.

I first bumped into Clover who was working part-time there.

After a while Chutipond was here too.

The first band on the stage.

Then one of my favourite band from the 6 bands they have, "Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob" continued to rock da house down.

In between break, I went to Arthur's Lounge to buy a Guinness duck beak cap and two Guinness chocolate bar.

Will Ng was up after "Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob". His singing was okay only.

Got the chance to take picture with the MC of the night. The gorgeous Stephinie Tan.

Finally, at 11.30 pm, Justin Lo went up on the stage. Started with a fast song of "决战二世祖"

He sang few songs until 12 midnight, and it's time to countdown for Arthur's Day one by one live in the three outlets.

To Arthur! And the party continued with almost endless flow of Guinness Draught.

Video Games Live 2012, Kuala Lumpur

I've read about Video Games Live two years ago that some of my blogger friends went and blogged about it. All the reviews were saying that VGL is awesome. Then last month I read that VGL will be held in Istana Budaya this year on 26th and 27th of May. When I tried to get the ticket, it was sold out.

Then on 26th I saw GPlusMY is giving out tickets for VGL on that day itself. So, I joined the tweeting contest and I was lucky to be one of the three winner. Thank you Glitterati Plus MY and Nuffnang Malaysia.

I arrived at Istana Budaya around 7.15 p.m., the show will starts at 8.30 p.m. Already the parking is quite hard to get even though I came an hour earlier. There was a long queue in the hallway. It turns out to be the fans queuing up to buy the merchandise like T-shirt, poster, CD and DVD

There was also a cosplaying contest. So, I happened to see some cosplayers there.

Besides cosplaying contest, there was also a Guitar Heroes contest. Winner get to go on stage in one of the act and go home with some cool VGL merchandizes.

 

The doors open at 8 p.m. Tony, Alex and I got the ticket from Shaz, current president of GPlusMY. I went in at about 8.20 p.m. because I chit chat with some friends that I bumped into outside the hallway. I think they were choosing the cosplaying winner went I got into the orchestra hall.

The set was performed by the National Symphonic Orchestra of Malaysia and choir. Conducted by Emmanuel Fratianni. Hosted by the creator of VGL and world famous video games composer, Tommy Tallarico. Soprano cum flutist, Laura Intravia.

It's more like a rock concert than a orchestra. The audiences were encouraged to make noise and there are a lot of interactive sessions. In one part, two audiences were asked to come up stage to battle it out in a game of Frogger, while the symphony play according to their game play.

Some of the highlights are the surprise appearance by the composer of Metal Gear series, Norihiko Hibino. He did a duet using his saxophone with Laura on "Snake Eater".

Then Laura shows off her flute playing skill by turning into Flute Link from Zelda. She led the symphony in doing Zelda medley.

Some of my favourite is the opening theme of Final Fantasy 8 and Crono Trigger and Crono Cross medley. Here's a short clip of the Crono medley.

VGL doesn't ends after the orchestra performance. There was a meet and greet session. The queue of the fans wanting to get autograph is so long.

Video Games Live is one great show that worth all the money. Wish they will come again next year.

Tiger Asian Music Festival 2012

I know I'm quite late in posting about this great concert that was attended by a 40,000 strong audience. Luckily I got to be in the VIP area thanks to Tiger and found some place to sit and breath easy. The best part is of course the free flow of Tiger beer all night long.

I was dressed for the occasion as in beach wear. So, a Hawaiian shirt will be very suitable. I had a bit of wardrobe change there because I got to get a LANSI T-shirt. So, I wore it on the spot.

Met Kate and Shannon.

 

Emily was my guest that night.

The concert opens with Beyond in the first performance. Brought me back to my primary school years.

Video here is Beyond's Wong Ka Keung and Paul Wong singing one of their hit song back in the 80s, "喜欢你". For more videos from Tiger AMF 2012, subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Paul took off his shirt when it's time for his solo act.

 

He sang "Can't Bring Me Down" during his solo act.

 

It was a fun yet hot concert. Lucky the rain never did come down even though the sky is showing signs. Looking forward to another Tiger Asian Music Festival next year.