“Beyond expectation” are mere simple words to describe the amazing show performed by Korea’s acclaimed a capella group, Red Soul, in Kota Kinabalu on the 15th of April this year. The high that the Kpop fans experienced during the show lasted for days, as seen clearly through the feedback these charming young men received via their Facebook group and event pages. No sooner had I recovered from the “un-homesickness” of being in South Korea last March, than I was hit with another Korean wave that is Kpop. It was just too much excitement for me… although, in all honesty, I’m not complaining.

We expected to be entertained by RedSoul’s marvelous serenades, but never did we expect to be rocked out and jumping about as if we’re at a rave party, but rocked us they did! As the first Kpop artiste to perform live in Sabah, Malaysia, Red Soul (also stylized as RedSoul or REDSOUL) definitely lived up to Kpop fans’ expectations and more. What a way to make history!

Fresh off their promotional tour in Kuala Lumpur on the 13th and 14th, Red Soul continued their promotion of their first album, “Isseojweo (Stay),” in Kota Kinabalu with a media listening party in the afternoon (which I will cover in detail in another post). I was fortunate to receive a last-minute blogger’s invitation in the morning to attend the media event as well as for the show from Dinoza, the man who made the event happen.

During the media event, I was impressed not only by their well-synchronized voices, but also the quality of their harmonized arrangement that they apparently can come up with in less than 10 seconds (more on that later). That convinced me that I must attend Red Soul’s show that night no matter what.

Armed with my better half’s DSLR camera, I arrived at Party Play, Lintas Plaza, at 7pm and sat and chatted in the company of fellow bloggers Caneeliea and Chegu Carol with her better half, Alvin, but not before I manage to snag the last spot in the front row seat of the show area… well, as frontmost as I could get, given that the first few rows were already reserved.

The show started with opening performances by Jonathan Tse, Alvin MY and JADESisters. Having seen Jonathan and Alvin’s performances before, I knew that night was off to a good start.

I was right, of course. Jonathan Tse performed a couple of his original songs “I’m Alive” and “3 Words” and a cover of Maroon 5′s song while punctuating them with hilarity that only he could pull off.

Alvin MY, in the mean time, crooned out four songs with his mellow R&B voice, and I’m glad he still has it even after his group Infinatez went their separate ways years ago. An impromptu performance with RedSoul’s beatbox maverick, Kang In Chang, had the crowd screaming in delight, and was the perfect accompaniment to the guitar strumming in the background.

JADESisters performed three songs, including a cute original that chronicled one of the members’ experience while auditioning for Korea’s MBC talent show in Seoul. Frankly, though, their performance was disappointingly forgettable. The lyric slip-ups (yes, in plural) by its member during her joint performance with Red Soul’s Hwang Tae Ik and Kim Ki Hyeon was a total let-down for me personally. I’m sorry, but I was expecting better from these talented ladies.

Moving on.

We finally hit the highlight of the night, starting with the Red Soul members introducing themselves. Their attempts at using Malay words as the show went on were certainly endearing, eliciting laughter from the audience with their easy-going attitudes, as well as delightful squeals from fangirls with their “aegyo”, i.e. cute expressions.

Red Soul performed many of their songs from “Isseojweo”, including “Han Yeojareul Saranghan Han Namja (When A Man Loves A Woman),” “Sarangiya Ireon Neukkim (This Feeling Is Love)” and my personal favourite which happened to be written by Ki Hyeon himself about his ex, the upbeat groove titled “Gimgisa.” Those moments were made more special when many of the people in the crowd knew the lyrics to their new songs and sang along with the group.

As if the show couldn’t get any better, the fun-loving guys performed covers of many English hit songs in a cappella versions AND turning the entire show into a full-blown party atmosphere not unlike a rock music festival. It was simply crazy! Red Soul managed to get the audience roaring and flailing our hands up in the air in sync with their songs, which included Ne-Yo’s “So Sick,” Maroon 5′s “This Love,” and BigBang’s “Blue” and “Fantastic Baby.”

Who knew that three altos, a tenor and a human beatbox could equal a party hard show?

In between songs, these handsome Red Soul men would either approach a random lucky female audience and serenade to her till she melts, or stand onto an empty chair and getting everyone off their feet with their energetic performance. The ear-splitting screams as the guys sauntered / darted to and fro the crowd were proof that everyone was more than pleased with their performance that night.

(photo courtesy of Raja Oberon)

Red Soul ended the event with an autograph signing session, as many of us in the audience lined up to get their signatures, still dazed by the fact that the evening turned out to be an unexpectedly happening night for everyone.

If there’s anything that needs to be improved, it would be that Party Play should have had their employees controlled. As rowdy as the crowd had seemed, none of us actually went to the front of the show area, but a couple (or three) of the staff became over-eager and stepped up in front and middle of the aisle, posing while RedSoul was performing, and blocking the audience’s view. It happened for about 15 minutes until I got fed up and just told off one of them to stand aside and let me enjoy the show, because no one else cared. It bothered me so much that I have to mention it here.

In any case, much kudos goes not only to RedSoul, but also to Dinoza and his team at Inspire ME for my free invite and bringing the group to perform in Sabah, and, not the least, the audience themselves for being so responsive and enthusiastic throughout the event.

My personal thanks also goes to Jeon Tae Ik for the being the member who looked straight at my camera the most number of times, hahahah! You have no idea how happy that makes me!

More details on this event can be found below:-
Flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ltimbah/sets/72157629843152833/
RedSoul performing “Sarangiya Ireon Neukkim” = http://youtu.be/pzFNzC_0TD8
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/260848580673421/
Red Soul Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/music.redsoul

Red Soul in KK! is brought to you by ME Malaysia and Natural Sound. Proudly sponsored by Party Play, Playground, Imperial Boutec Hotel, Wilti-Jos, Breeze Magazine, Shangri-la Tg Aru Resort & Spa, Koryo-Jeong Korean Restaurant, Sea Quest, The Body Shop and Hakod Oasis

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Sabah bloggers got a different treat this year for the annual gathering, unlike the previous three years. It was more grand and complicated than before, (being that I only realized a couple of days before it happened) that this event, glamorously called B2.0, was going to be held over a 2-day, 3-night period! Wow!

Organized by the team at Borneo Colours (BC), the event started with a preview dinner on 28 October, followed by a seminar on the 29th, then a paintball get-together on 30th morning, and a closing ceremony cum winners announcement that evening. Being caught off-guard by the overwhelming activities at a last minute, I only managed to attend the preview dinner (see me mingle here) and the seminar a.k.a. New Media Dialogue. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the seminar itself was more impressive than I expected. In the morning, for some reason just more than half the seats were filled, but by noon, the place was packed.

“Borneo’s Regional Blogospheres” was presented by three bloggers representing Brunei DS (Marul a.k.a Geek In White), Kalimantan (Dwi Wahyudi a.k.a. Blogger Borneo) and Sarawak (Cyril Dason) regions. I came in late but just in time for Marul’s presentation, so I wasn’t sure whether there was anyone from Sabah presenting at that session (maybe Daniel Doughty’s opening remarks was it?). Overall it was a good warm-up session for what was to come.

“Blog Monetization” by Addy Kho of The 9-Hour Work Week blog was a session that’s right up my alley. His monetizing focus was on Internet and affiliate marketing. When he mentioned using Top Commentators to engage users, my ears perked. My eyes missed the widget when scanning his blog the first time, so I thought he removed it. However, it was actually right on the sidebar slightly way down the website. It’s great to know that Addy further validates the use of TC in relation to increasing readership and subsequently the ka-ching factor.

Reeda Malik a.k.a. AnakBrunei’s session on “Managing Your Personal Brand” led me to ask him this: is it possible (or has there been any case) where a person can successfully separate his online persona and his real-life identity? To be known for his skills rather than his personality? The gist of Reeda’s answer was that more often than not there exist a very fine line in separating those identities, and you might as well be a schizophrenic to achieve that. E-hem. I was hoping I could be like Clark Kent / Superman, you know. Clark being the equivalent of me in real life, while Superman being the equivalent of WebGrrrl, ‘cause we have super cool names, you see. Why, people even mistakenly calls me Lana sometimes, so… *flatters self*.

I’m glad Cyril Dason posed the question on the use of disclaimer in a website after Eddie Law’s session on “Blogging Limitation — Law and Ethics”, which affirms what I’ve known all along about it – it’s useless. It doesn’t protect you from the law. Otherwise if it does, you won’t see so many bloggers in Malaysia go to jail so easily. Eddie’s session garnered the most questions in this seminar, which was a pleasant surprise for me. This shows that we bloggers do care about integrity and civility, contrary to political and contemporary beliefs.

One minute into Rob Angeles’ session on “Effective Steps to Online Engagement”, and you’ll realize that A) he really knows what he’s talking about, and B) he has a great sense of humour. Through his extensive statistics and technical glitches, he kept us guffawing and at the same time more aware of how important social media is for businesses to engage in. Keyword: Enterprise 2.0.

I frankly wasn’t keen on paying attention to “From Zero to Hero Using Social Media” by Ronnie Klassen, a politician who happens to blog. It reminded me too much of my disgust towards the current Malaysian political scene and the fact that I will soon have to vote again for the lesser of two evils. I wasn’t even trying to listen, other than on the part where he mentioned about his top — and most controversial — three blog posts that ended up getting him locked up in jail while earning him a few thousand US dollars per post from Google AdSense at the same time. Note to self: controversy pays.

GreenSurf’s session, especially its videos, kept me back on pace and Harjinder and Alice rocked! “Case Study: Winning Hearts & Minds Through New Media” provided not just the volunteers’ experiences on behalf of Sabahans in acting against the proposed coal power plant in Lahad Datu, but also gave a very honest view on the benefits and limitations of using social media to voice the people’s true decisions and thoughts on this matter.

Joomla made its debut in this dialogue in the form of Azrul’s JomSocial in “Powered CMS”. I’m impressed with this Facebook-like plugin that powers Borneo Colours’ website. This still didn’t stop me from poking fun at Joomla lightheartedly by clapping loudly when Azrul pointed out the stats whereby WordPress has the highest number of plugins compared to Joomla and Drupal. At the next slide, he showed that Joomla plugins were downloaded the most compared to WP and Drupal. I just like to think that this is because WordPress gets more done with less Still, I’d like to thank Azrul for even considering WordPress as a CMS.

Then comes Daniel Doughty’s session on “Collaborative Marketing Initiative”. He might as well just call this “What is Borneo Colours” In all honesty, I’ve been pretty confused with what Borneo Colours is trying to achieve in the online social media arena. Are they volunteers? Are they doing these for free? Are they commercial? Up to that time, all I see was little transparency, with much hyped superficial activities and bombastic publicity words, and I made sure Daniel knew my thoughts about BC when I chatted with him at the preview dinner. His session did clear it up: BC is a commercial entity with a noble cause, which is to use social media and gather bloggers specifically to promote tourism in the Borneo region. So now that he’s cleared up BC’s business model, how about its revenue model? Hmm.

I always love startup stories, so I really wanted to sit through FlickEvents’ Yan Phun as she talks about her company’s experience in “Start Ups Challenge and Opportunity”. However, realizing that it was time for me to split and pick up my kids from school, I had to rush out and miss most of her talk.

I’d like to add more thoughts on this event, but good golly am I tired (I have another hour left before I’m off to work and I haven’t slept a wink!). So, kudos to Borneo Colours for going all out to organize this event. I can imagine how challenging it is to organize such an event with four regions over three different countries.

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Oh em gee, Sabah Bloggers Gathering is barely a week away! What makes this year’s gathering special is that it’s held on Hallow’s Eve, and you bet everyone’s gonna get crazy with their costumes!

Speaking of costumes, the theme is suppose to be anything really freaky looking, but I’m not planning to dress like that. I worry that my kids may have nightmares when they see their mom dressing up as a boogie (wo)man. Therefore, I am dressing up as something else but no less grrrl-looking, and I’m keeping it to myself till that night comes.

The hot and hunky organizers are doing a great job, yet again. Venue will be the the scenic loft of the classy Imperial International Hotel, in the heart of Kota Kinabalu city. Local supremo guitarist Roger Wang, and Alvin from the Malaysian reality show group Infinatez will be joining the list of entertainers for the night’s show. And, will Nuffnang and our wonderful bloggers from Tawau make a surprise appearance?

So for those of you who are in Kota Kinabalu and would like to crash the party, entrance fee is just RM20 per head. If it’s anything like last year, get ready to delight yourself with some scrumptious food and gourmet/premium desserts! It’s so worth it just for the food itself!

I’m off to pick up my kids, and then do some costume shopping, see you all there!

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I am far from being a political person, but who in this country can ignore the heat of the upcoming election? I especially am looking forward to the official candidacy list which will be released this weekend.

I’ve heard a lot of gossip surrounding potential Sabah candidates under the National Front (Barisan Nasional in Malaysia), where supposedly most of the current State members are booted out of being nominated, including most of the State cabinet members, and lots of new blood chosen to be in the running. I’m not sure I believe this gossip, even though the sources claimed to be those who are very close to the Sabah Chief Minister. But, if it is true, it’s a big bummer for me! I was counting on at least three of the current State ministers to maintain their posts, as I have my own personal agenda that can better be assisted to if the three of them are still given the chance to compete. Hahah!

Will I be voting on the 8th of March? I’m not sure. I would like to, but since my husband will be one of the officers “volunteered” to oversee one of the voting stations in KK, and no one to look after my kids, I’m not sure it’s possible for me to even go out. Who will I be voting for? None of your business, but I suppose you can guess.

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A half-century ago on this day, Malaya was finally free from British rulership. The states of Sabah (North Borneo), Sarawak (West Borneo) and Singapore officially joined six years and 16 days later to form the initial Malaysia, therefore escaping the fate of colonization from the English as Malaya had. A fallout by Singapore ensued two years later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sabah is unique from the rest of the Malaysian states due to the 20-point agreement made with Malaya prior to joining Malaysia. The most integral points (as far as I’m concerned) are:

Point 2: Language

a. Malay should be the national language of the Federation
b. English should continue to be used for a period of 10 years after Malaysia Day
c. English should be an official language of North Borneo for all purposes, State or Federal, without limitation of time.

Now I know why those in Peninsular Malaysia keep saying that most Sabahans they know can speak English very well. I read in one induction programme book for Federal Civil Employees, that English was allowed to be used in official matters for the first 10 years after Malaya achieved independence. After the racial riot in 1969, on a Federal level every effort should be made to use only the Malay language for official purpose, for the sake of unity.

Point 6: Immigration

Control over immigration into any part of Malaysia from outside should rest with the Central Government but entry into North Borneo should also require the approval of the State Government. The Federal Government should not be able to veto the entry of persons into North Borneo for State Government purposes except on strictly security grounds. North Borneo should have unfettered control over the movements of persons other than those in Federal Government employ from other parts of Malaysia into North Borneo.

This is why our friends from Sarawak and the Peninsular cannot get in and out Sabah without a passport, and that our Peninsular friends must first get a work permit before they can be employed in this state. One of the easier ways non-Sabahans can work in this state is — what most people I see do — to marry a Sabahan

Point 12: Special position of indigenous races

In principle, the indigenous races of North Borneo should enjoy special rights analogous to those enjoyed by Malays in Malaya, but the present Malays’ formula in this regard is not necessarily applicable in North Borneo.

Believe it or not, Malays from Sabah are not considered the same as Malays from the Peninsular. I have to ask my Malay-Sabahan friends to explain that.

In any case, don’t let labels detract us from the fact that a Malaysian is a Malaysian. So here’s wishing every Malaysian a blessed and united Merdeka Day 2007.

Heads up to Enveluv.com for the WordPress Merdeka logo.

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