Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival at KLPAC!!!

Yeap, I am late (as usual) but then, better late than never! Especially when it is about sharing the arts. As the title/picture/rest-of-the-content, I am writing about my experience during the Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival 2014 (YSDAF). I only attended 14th Sept, which is Day 2.

First off, when I arrived at the KLPAC, I headed towards the indicine, waiting for doors to open because at 11am, a short session to understand Shakespeare is available. I cannot exactly say I am a fan of Shakespeare since I do not fully understand his works. Perhaps the more suitable word would be... deeply intrigued. Anyway, this session allows me to further my understanding in Shakespeare's language and acting methods(in some ways). Presented by Shakespeare Demystified, I realised that in Shakespeare's works, the best way to understand are to link the words to feelings or imagery.The funny thing is, to read Shakespeare is definitely NOT the same as performing Shakespeare and to understand Shakespeare, the latter is much more useful.

Alas, when I came out from indicine, the weather was storming indeed. I kind of pity the outdoor activities like Panggung Pusaka, Lorong Makan and the flea market(for lack of better word). But blessing in disguise indeed as I managed to experience what Urumee Melum(spelling differs but you get the pronunciation) is. It is like a rock concert made with traditional instruments of Tamil origin. Luckily enough, there would be performing again at Panggung Pusaka later in the evening.

Anyhow, the thundering rain was no match for my grumbling stomach and I did buy some food but the wet tables and chairs were..... difficult to adapt to, so I discover little pavilions around the lake, supported by stilts and it was much easier eating in these pavilions, than trying to eat while holding an umbrella. The seats, in the pavilion that I stumbled into, was like work of art to me. Made with wire frames, those seats was pretty sturdy. It felt a little serene, sitting inside the pavilion, looking into the lake, with droplets of water falling(as the rain reduced to a slight drizzle).

So, after lunch, what's next? I went to pentas 2 and see what local bands and artiste had to offer. But I only stayed for two acts, which are An Honest Mistake band and Bihzhu. I have long heard of An Honest Mistake but I have yet to seen them. Finally seeing them perform, I can see that they are really committed and I really wish them all the best in the future. Bihzhu's performance came as a really present surprise because I have not heard of her before but her genre is jazz and gosh, her voice was so clear over the music. And she interacts with the crowd really nicely too.

Next on, I enjoyed sometime which is closer to my heart, poetry. The forgetful me has forgotten the name of the poets but what I remembered was as such :
1. Corrective Couture, where it gave me the impression of challenging traditional views of what a woman should be, in some ways. Hugely amused by this one.
2. A poem accompanied by guitar strumming which suddenly seems more like a song than a poem. Nonetheless, entertaining indeed.
3. A poem which tells a tale of .. sis-mance between to housemates, and reminded that it just takes one thing for everything to explode and to finally iron things out. In this case, it was the colour of a cup. Lol.
4. A romantic poem of long love, where the protagonist is a soldier(sounded like one in the poem) and the love of his life was waiting for him.
5. A poem about being YOLO and involved audiences' participation by requiring the audience to yell 'JUMP!" when the hand signal was made
6. Two poems in Bahasa Melayu which left me in awe, partially due to the fact they were accompanied by violin and guitar and in BM. It felt very... jiwang (am I using this word correctly?)

A word of caution, as with all poems, the above are just my own understanding. Possibly it differs from the poets own meaning and intention but that is what make poems so wonderful and beautiful, right?

So, that is as much as my muddled goldfish brain can remember. But I do have to say, there were times that they are so many things going on that I was at a lost of what to do and where to go, and it is then I understand the meaning of sacrifice, lol. A mismatch lesson learnt but it was all good. It is the arts anyway!

A Shaman's Journey revisited!

And the shaman being referred to is..... Asakura Yoh! Yeah, for those who recognise the name, I am actually going to talk about Shaman King ("SK")(manga version). Granted, SK started its serialisation more than 10 years ago and ended its run in 2004. Hence, 2014 is exactly a decade after it ended. Well, since I recently completed reading the manga (I would say more like.. marathoned it, rather than reading), I figured a dissection or just some thoughts of it would be just fine. Lol.

Initially, I thought SK had the usual shounen plot. Main character meet other characters, started off as either allies and rivals, and eventually all became allies because of a greater cause. Anyway, if you want a summary, wikipedia article can help you much better. For me, I think the driving force of SK is actually the characters' individual development and how well the plot twist can occur ie completely defeats my expectations. For example, like how "Bokuto no Ryu" became a shaman and eventually a comrade of Yoh's during the Shaman Fight(or Tournament) when in the first few chapters, he was portrayed as a 'normal delinquent' and could also be considered as an enemy of sorts.

If there is one thing that I really applaud SK for, it would be the fact that the mangaka (Hiroyuki Takei) uses actual birth dates and year for each significant character. So, it is quite fun, really. Sometimes I make little calculations on each character and give them a definite age at certain point in time. I mean, it is common for mangaka to give birthdays for characters but specific years are definitely not a common practice.

Lastly, the best part about SK is really the ENDING. Nah, not because I want the manga to end! But because the mangaka really wrapped up the story, with some fast-forwarding to the future of showing how the significant characters became and so on.

Well, I know I didn't really go into details and specifics because I was sort of trying to make you read it, rather than me spoiling the whole story for you. And as I have said at the beginning, this is just some of my thoughts and insights regarding SK manga. I didn't make a comparison with the anime because it just doesn't seem fair to compare those two. 

Sengoku time! (AniManGaki version!) aka 2014's theme

CHAAAAARGE!!!!! Through the doors and enter a world of the Warring States, where Kei-Chan tries to conquer Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre!!
(Nah, Kei-Chan didn't, actually event-goers, cosplayers and all other related people did. :P)

Anyway, that was how I pictured the opening of Day 1 of AniManGaki (AMG) 2014 to be like. While I didn't managed to make it for both days of AMG 2014, I didn't had the slightest doubt that it will be another awesome year!

And based on the response I managed to collect via the internet, it would seem that most people enjoyed themselves. Of course, there were some negative points too but hey, we can never satisfy EVERYONE, can we?

Well, it was sad and depressing, not to be able to attend an event that I had attended(more like helping out or be a free slave) annually, like a pious devotee, since its inception in 2009, and missing out on all the fun this year. Especially when there are so many things that I was really looking forward to, like Animenz piano performance, Bin Yun's singing performance, the panicked faces of the crew during the 2 days (sadist in me) and the look of satisfaction on event-goers, invited guest, doujinshi crowd, cosplayers and definitely, the whole crew when the event came to an end.

Ah, another thing, AMG was trying to break the Malaysian Book of Records for the longest figurine display! But no information has been mentioned at all regarding that, so nope, no idea what's the outcome so far.

Oh well, I guess that is as much as I can write for not attending an event, which I will definitely be attending next year!