Bigger is better?

O_O

LOL. I know some of you guys were curious when you saw that tagline, ‘aite? Well, whatever you guys were thinking, keep it to yourself...keke. We are going to talk about singers today, yup, those wonderful people with nightingale-like voices...something like that.

I’m gonna talk about a few talented singers with super great voices...and yes, they happened to be beautiful in size too. There are 2 parts of this entry...I've decided to post them as one part for the international singers & another one especially for the local (Malaysian) singers.

First up, Aretha Louise Franklin a.k.a. The Queen of Soul.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take care ... TCB

Heck, she’s so great that even Rolling Stone magazine ranked her as the numero uno on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time. She’s THE DIVA with many hit songs, but two of my all-time favourites are “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”. 

 

 

And ahem, I’ve watched the gossip channel E! Entertainment & also found out that she demands the best wherever she goes; as in the best hotel room, best trailer, best clothes, etc. etc. etc. Whoa! That’s the symbol of a true diva through and through. I mean, why not, right? If your name is Aretha Franklin, you can afford to become choosy. She's larger than life! Who cares what everybody else's has to say...heck, if I'm Aretha, I'll say, "I want the best & I want it now!" Hehe =)

p.s. Ooo...this picture is kinda sexy, eh? LOL...I like the macro caption, though.

Next up, a divo (male diva...hihi). The one & only the late Luciano Pavarotti. 

What the...? Some of you might say... Well, I wouldn’t have considered opera as a 'worth-listening-to' branch of music if it wasn’t for the likes of Maestro Pavarotti. He made me realised that opera is cool! 

I love pronouncing his name too. LU-CI-A-NO PA-VA-ROT-TI. Gosh...sounds like something edible. Don’t ‘ya feel like you are about to eat some kind of magnificent, tasty Italian dish? Hehe...anyway, Maestro came from an underprivileged family background but had risen to become one of the most prominent figures in opera. This is where one of my favourite saying comes to mind; “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. Yeah, Maestro proved it that nothing’s impossible if you dare reach for that distant dream of yours. 

And what’s cooler is that...I’ve found out that Maestro once thought about becoming a football goalkeeper. Ooo...fascinating. What would that have been, though. Hmmm...

The thing I love most is Maestro reminded me of a cute penguin whenever he sang, what’s with that tailcoat he always wore. Cute...keke. And yes, he had so many interesting collaborations with some of my favourite singers, as the list below shows.

 

So, who’s next? Oh, yes! I adore this girl’s voice...Miss Adele Laurie Blue Adkins.

One of the reasons Adele is one of my favourite is simply because we both love Spice Girls! Hehe... "Great minds think alike". Adele even said the Spice Girls is a major influence to her love and passion for music, and lemme quote what she stated about the Spice Girls; "they made me what I am today”. According to what I’ve read, Adele even impersonated the Spice Girls at dinner parties when she was young. That’s awesome. Girl power, sistah!

So, I’m sure most of you have heard “Rolling in the Deep”, right? If you haven’t yet, I have only one question to ask you... “Where have you been, mister?” Keke. That song of hers made that one particular scene in ‘I Am Number Four’ memorable to me. Have you watched the movie? I’m talking about this scene...

However, my favourite Adele's song gotta be "Someone Like You". I love that song! Here's the vid of Adele performing that awesome song. Brilliant!

Hmmm...what other interesting titbits about Adele that I know of? Well, Adele was classmates with Leona Lewis and Jessie J. I wonder what kind of a class that was? Must have been fun. I love those two. I think I should write about Leona Lewis & Jessie J. sometime later. Love them!

Another interesting thing, Beyoncé said that our Adele is one of the influences for her recent album. Isn’t Adele great?

Okay, guys, my next next entry...Bigger is better (the Malaysian way) featuring Sharifah Aini, Adibah Noor & Najwa Mahiaddin :)

Yup. Big girls you are beautiful.

Silence is golden...

Have you ever watched an ad so good that it made you sit up & take notice? Well, I often laughed at some ads which I’d find rather funny...or cringe when the ads were so ridiculously pointless. 

Well, the following ad affected me differently...as it made me cry...tsk. And the ad was just for a mere frickin’ minutes!

Gosh...the acting in this particular ad was superb! Well, to me anyway. Though I’m not much of a judge on acting...keke. To me, the father & daughter were perfectly casted. Their relationship was so dang touching...sob...sob.

The angst-ridden daughter & the doting father somehow reflect upon our society as I find some teenagers nowadays are sorta rebellious to the point of them being...ridiculous! Well, I work with teenagers, so I know what I'm saying. After all, I'm a teacher in a secondary school. O_O...the place where all sorts of young minds gather...yea.

Anyway, ehem, that's just my opinion, no offence to those wonderful teens out there reading this :)

So, what do ‘ya think? Love it or hate it?

We belong...

I was reading an entry from one of my favourite blogger, Justin at I'm Just Saying... , when something dawned upon me. Well, the entry was called New Sabahan , and I suddenly was thinking to myself, heck, I’m one of those ‘new’ Sabahan too. Keke... Well you see, I have a Johorean father and a Sabahan mother. Not much you might say since I’ve heard of others whose parentage was so diverse and complicated (e.g. English-Pakistani-Chinese-Japanese-Kadazan), that mine seemed a bit too tame.

Yup! That might be the case to some of you people, why should I be bothered by Justin’s entry? I’m not ‘illegal’, right? The thing is, whenever people ask me, where I’m from...you know what I would normally reply? Well, I'm from here & there, my father from Johor and my mother from Sabah. Then, they would continue to ask, so...what are you, then? Ooo...my reply would be, I’m JAWS. LOL. Where did that term come from? From my dad, of course! Dad used to joke that since his late father had Javanese blood and his mother’s Malay, so “JAW” is from him. And the “S” is from my dearest mother who is a pure Dusun (and proud of it, right mom?). 

What’s unfortunate though is, I know nada about the Javanese language except for ‘Kabare’ and ‘Waras’...hehe. And as for Dusun, gosh...I often wonder what my grandmother often asked of me. Yup, whenever my grandma came to our house, I often have to shout to my mom, “Mak, Nenek datang!” Why? ‘Cos my grandma will straight away converse in Dusun, and with the little Dusun that I possess, I’m ashamed to say that I could only understand bits and pieces of what my grandma was saying...keke.

Why you might ask, my command of those two languages (Javanese & Dusun) so poor? Err...could be because of the nature of my dad’s job, our family moved a lot when we were kids? I couldn’t even keep in touch with my friends when I was in school. I’ve studied in SRK Bandar Baru Bangi and then to SK Tanjung Aru. After that I went to SM Konven St Francis in KK and then to SMK Tunku Kurshiah in Negeri 9. What did I gain from all this? Well, I know how to sing the state anthem of Selangor, Sabah & Negeri 9. Huhu... What did I miss from all this? Lemme see, close childhood friends and the opportunity to master the 2 dialects (Javanese & Dusun) perhaps? 

But, you know what? Because of the slightly different upbringing, I’m proud to say that my siblings and I are all very open-minded people. We are sorta the ‘people’ person some might say. Due to the integration brought by our daring parents, we don’t judge others hastily. Yes sir, in the 70’s, not many ‘Semenanjung’ people marries Sabahan, you know? So, they are sorta the pioneers...keke. My parents have been practicing the ‘1 Malaysia’ spirit wayyy before it even existed. Way to go mom and dad!

My siblings and I adapt well with both the Semenanjung and the Sabahan people. We switch back and forth from the way the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia talk to the way Sabahan talk in a blink of an eye. We laughed our hearts out whenever there's an awkward moment when someone from Semenanjung tried to chat up with someone from Sabah...using the Indonesian slang! “Apa khabar Pak?” LOL ...what the heck?! And we’ve tried to make both our Johorean & Sabahan relatives to understand the different custom practices between them. For example; in Johor, we use Pak Long, Ngah, Uda, Andak, Uteh & Ucu. In Sabah, we use Auntie & Uncle :)

Ooo...I remember my grandma used to ask us kids when we visited her in Kundasang during school holiday once. She asked... “Bila la kamu pulang pigi Malaysia?” I looked at my brother and my sister, smiling wide and scratching our heads, thinking the same thing I guess. “Err, I thought we ARE in Malaysia?” 

So, you see people, I am sorta a ‘new’ Sabahan. Albeit slightly different than what Justin had to say about in his entry. I would like to think that I’m the best of both worlds, hehe. I guess ALL of us are mostly like that in this time of age, right? We are ALL very 'rojak' these days...hehe. Where do we belong? Let us listen to what Pat Benatar had to say in her song aptly titled “We Belong” shall we?

 
We Belong to the light
We Belong to the thunder
We Belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We Belong, We Belong
We Belong together

NYR?

My dad and I often use this term when talking about yes...

The root of all evil... Ka-ching... Moolah...

Well, of course we are talking about none other than MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

So peeps, what are your current status financially? My dad said we are currently ‘NYR’ a.k.a. ‘Not Yet Rich'. Hehe...never mind dad, at least we are happy :)

Lemme see, what can I gather about $$$?

Money; can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

Money can’t buy happiness.

Get one’s money’s worth.

Put one’s money where one’s mouth is.

Easy money...hush money...not for love or money...time is money.

Ooo...as for me though, too little and too much of M-O-N-E-Y can trigger headaches. Don’t ‘ya think so?

And keke...since I’m talking about money today, lemme entertain you with the following clips on today’s topic :)

And of course, my recent favourite clip on money (btw, my dad likes this song too).

A Dusun wedding song

2day, I checked my sms messages & found something interesting.

The translated lyrics of a well-known Dusun song titled ‘Miniagal Oh Sinsing’ by John Gaisah.

This song is sorta the staple song played or performed during any KadazanDusun weddings. And yes...often sung by those 'uncles' a.k.a. gaman during drinking time...keke.

How did I come by the lyrics? Well, my youngest bro went to PLKN in Rembau. And he asked me to search for the lyrics (the original Dusun version) of the song. He also asked what does the lyric means in Malay.

So, since I’m not at all proficient in the Dusun language (even though I’m half-Dusun), I got my fabulous Auntie Rabidah to translate the lyrics for me. Thus, she sent me couples of sms with the lyrics in Malay. Thanks a lot aunt! U r awesome!

Well, lemme see...I think we should post the original Dusun version first. And here it goes...

miniagal oh sinsing
poinsulung id tunturu ya
tanda dagai do misanganu
tanda dagai do miginawo

sinsing di pointopot
di au nodi oidu idu
tanda do poingirot oh ginawo
tanda do aiso suai sanganu

aiso di suai andadon yaa
nga tanak dagai kopogulu
tondu poh toi kusai oh tanak
ginowoon dagai ngoduo

sorou-sorou ku noh
ngaran do pomungaran yaa
au kaandad orikot oh timpu
au kaandad aiso kikibiton

Credit goes to: borneobonita.blogspot.com (Tq for compiling KadazanDusun songs & lyrics)

Then...the translated Malay version courtesy of my fabulous Auntie Rabidah :)

Cincin tanda ikatan,
Di jari manis kami kini,
Tanda cinta yang suci,
Tanda cinta kami berdua.

Cincin tanda setia,
Yang akan kekal abadi,
Tanda cinta yang tulus,
Tanda hati ini dimiliki.

Kini kami menanti,
Kehadiran cahaya mata,
Lelaki atau perempuan,
Kami terima dengan redha.

Kini kami memikirkan,
Nama untuk si comel,
Tak sabar rasa menunggu,
Tak sabar untuk menimangnya.

Well, now I think I can delete the sms, right? If I'm in the mood, I’ll try to translate the Malay lyrics into English...that is, IF. Hehe...

Unsuspecting Heroes #2

So, who’s the next unsung hero?

Well, I’m sure that everyone who knows me are aware that I love reading books, especially the Harry Potter series.

So, here’s a particular character from the book series...keke.

Case #2 : Fictional Character* Neville Longbottom of the Harry Potter book series.

Death Eaters say : He’s a useless, bumbling idiot & a Potter wannabe.

I say : From zero to hero. You are ‘da man, Neville!

Lesson learnt : “There's a hero inside all of us...waiting to show the world what we have” (Lyrics taken from Nural’s Hero)

Unsuspecting Heroes...

I feel like writing about people whose luck unexpectedly changed for the better.

I mean, most of us think that life stops becoming interesting at a certain point in our life. Yet, by looking at some of the things that happened around us (rare though it may seem), I suddenly agree with the following saying...

NEVER SAY DIE!

 

Case #1 : Reality Star* Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent 2009.

Critics say : She’s ugly, fat, old & dim-witted. 

I say : That voice. Whoa!

Lesson learnt : Never judge a book by its cover :)