Yuna Yuna

Yuna came to Denver!! haha.. we went to watch her perform at the bluebird theater on Friday and then guess what we did. We went for dinner with her!

Bluebird Theater, Denver

It wasn't her show though. She was just opening for another band Graffiti 6. They're a british band which I never heard of before but they're quite famous actually. One of their songs, Stare Into the Sun, was used in grey's anatomy and FIFA 12.

Graffiti6

Graffiti6 in action.

Anyway we were just there for Yuna, we left for dinner after listening to the FIFA song.. haha.. Her performance was quite short but really good. And she has swag, really feeling the music. She did 5 songs from her new album and the best for me was Bad Idea and Fading Flowers, very jazzy.

Yuna with her ukulele singing Bad Idea.

Dinner was really awkward at first, we didn't really know how to behave in front of a celebrity, so just control macho ny lah.. haha.. but she was really friendly, talked to everyone personally, making us all feel involved in the conversation, very nice person. Lepaaak only.

So now I saw Liyana Fizi and Yuna already, next must see Zee Avi! All the girls with guitars.. haha

Autograph!!! But I dunno what I'm gonna do with it also.. haha

BolderBoulder

Finally an event title that fits with my blog.. yay.. my first race in America, the BolderBoulder 10k. Took me 64 minutes to complete it, quite proud of myself actually..haha..the first race where everything went smoothly, no leg pain and I managed to finish strong! We started at 29th street mall and finished at Folsom Stadium.

Waiting for the flag off.

Inside CU's Folsom Stadium

Anyway, this event is considered one of the biggest 10k races in America, around 50000 people sign up each year, from pro runners who only need half an hour to finish to people who walk with their whole family for 2 hours. After the race there's a short memorial day thing where people remember military members. There were supposed to be a few skydivers landing into the stadium carrying the american flag but it was too windy that morning so they had to cancel.

This plane was flying around the whole morning. Dunno what the fella advertising.

BolderBoulder is unique in a way that when you run there'll be people playing music or dancing or performing whatever they want to throughout the whole trail so you won't need your mp3 player, its never quiet. And when we ran through neighborhoods there are people sitting outside their houses watching the race, some people do a barbecue and offer food to runners, I saw people giving bacon, marshmallows, cupcakes and even beer.

While waiting for everyone else, these people did some damn cun flips and acrobatics.

And then there's the runners themselves, macam macam these people. When I ran I saw captain america, LMFAO's party rock people, people in tutus, clowns, a gorilla and the best one i think is a group of people dressed up in lego costumes. Nah, watch this 2 minutes video to get a glimpse of the race.

If there's one thing I can complain about is that there's no Milo van at the end of the race.. haha.. instead we got a goody bag filled with all sorts of funny funny energy bar kind of thing, but atleast its something right? Need to join more races lah after this, maybe an obstacle course next.. just like high school last time.

Live Bolder. Run Boulder.

Shock Shock

Culture Shock 2012


Its actually an event where you do cultural performances. But the highlight of the night was Hype 303 and Clara C. Hype 303 was damn gempak!!! Their dancing was damn ganas!! Watch for yourself, I dont know how to explain it in words:



And then there's Clara C, lebih kurang like jayesslee or kina grannis gang lah. She only did a few songs though, but it was nice. She has her own kind of style where she uses some funny stuff to play her music. For example on that night she had a hookah piano thingy, a duck sound thingy and she records something that she plays on stage and combines them all together and repeats it. So its like she's not playing alone. Nah, tengok jangan tak tengok:

Ball Ball

They're playing basketball~

Inside of the Coors Event Center

Last home game of the season for CU and they ended it with a BANG! CU Buffs won againts Cal Bears.

You're supposed to see the words "Buffs Win" on the lcd thingy

My first live basketball game and because it was the last game of the season, the stadium was packed. Everybody was loud, and you can't help it but to join in the fun.

It didn't feel as long as it seems if you were to watch it on tv. Maybe no commercials. During the timeouts and halftime there were cheerleaders, there's a dance group and there's even some aunties shakin' it on the court. Then there was a kiss cam, fan cam and stuff like that.

Since this is the last home game of the season, everyone honored the four seniors who has been playing for CU for a few years now. Their parents joined them on the court, they gave a speech and they had posters of themselves. Now CU is quite high in the PAC-12, Wonder how we gonna do next season.

And here's a song about basketball:

Jazz Jazz

I'm taking History of Jazz this semester as an elective, and to get credits I have to attend some jazz concerts and write a report about it. So this is my first concert, the Spring Swing in CU.

Macky Auditorium. Where the arts happen.

The CU Jazz Ensemble 1 did a great job playing classic jazz songs. To me the drummer was the most stylo, moving his whole body to music while playing the drum. His solo to Sing Sing Sing was especially good. But one thing you can't help but to notice was that there were a lot of very old people there. A LOT.

The Stage before.

The stage during.

Anyway, what did I learn in my Jazz class? Mainly about the people places and different style of jazz. There's the Minstrel and Vaudeville shows, the Blues, Ragtime and Swing plus others that we haven't talked about in class.

This is Glenn Miller, he was a CU student back in the day, and now there's a Glenn Miller Ballroom in CU. Check out one of his famous song, In the mood.

Glenn Miller

Btw here's a video of Swing dancing in the early 1900's that I thought you should see. One word I'd use to describe it is IMBA! seriously imba. The dancing starts halfway through so you can skip the early part. Again, damn IMBA!




Finally some classic jazz songs you might wanna listen to:

Sing Sing Sing
Singin' The Blues
Weather Bird
The Entertainer
Blue Skies
It Don't Mean A Thing
West End Blues

Dance Dance

I went for Dance For Hope tonight, its a salsa event to create awareness about sex trafficking. And it was really well received. Dapat sambutan hangat. The ballroom at CU was full.


There was a live band there that night called "Quemando", one of the top salsa bands in Denver. Actually Boulder-Denver has a really happening salsa scene. In Boulder itself there are 6 regular salsa events every week. So might as well do what the locals do.

The event. My camera's night shot is bad. haha

We mainly did some partner dancing, or regular salsa as you would call it, and also one round of Rueda de Casino. Rueda is a group salsa dance where you form a circle and dance with a partner for a while and then switch partners every few seconds. While dancing a leader will call out some moves so everyone has to do it together. So by the end of the Rueda you get to dance with everyone. That's the lessons that I've been taking last semester. Really fun especially if its dancing to a fast tune.

Check out this video, gives you an idea of how Rueda is. And btw, Happy Valentine's day!

Monster Monster

This is my second time at the Pepsi Center, this time its for Monster Jam!

A panorama shot of Monster Jam Denver. Click it. I used Microsof ICE to combine a few images into this one shot.

What comes to you mind when you think of a monster truck show? For me its rock n roll, beer and rugged men. But I was wrong. Actually, there were more cotton candy, superheroes and screaming kids! I'm serious. They even have hotwheels versions of these monster trucks. Here are the six trucks that took part:

This one is called The Gravedigger

Monster Mutt, it has a tongue, ears and a tail.

Ironman

Monster Energy monster truck

Spiderman... spiderman~

Batman at the monster jam.

Anyway, the Pepsi Center is meant for basketball or hockey so the "track" was quite small for these big trucks to run around in. There were a few categories for the competition. First, vertical jump. Second, race. Third, freestyle. But most of the time, we just waited for the trucks to park, or for the crew to clean up the place.

Part 1. Spiderman got the most vertical jump..obviously..

Part 2. Monster Mutt vs Spiderman

Part2. Ironman beats Monster Energy

Part 3. Freestyle. There were jumps, vertical airtime and drifting

And then there were some filler shows with some other vehicles.

Quadbike race. Team Detroit vs Team Denver.

The little golf kart that could. Its a golf kart with fire spitting exhaust.

The golf kart in turbo mode, all the fire from its exhaust pushing it forward.

And then there is Megasaurus who likes to eat cars.

Oh, and he breathes fire too.

The crowd was loud mainly because the commentator was really good in putting everyone in the mood. Respect. And also becasue they threw a lot of free stuff to the crowd. In the end, Monster Energy won top spot.

So, for me I think experiencing this highly "commercial" sport one time is enough. Next time I go to the Pepsi Center maybe I should watch a basketball game, that's what this place is meant for.

NewYear NewYear

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!!

So, if a picture is worth a thousand words... then... nah 15000 words for you.. haha.. enjoy! CNY festival in CU-Boulder:

Thats a new lion dance costume. There was some kind of officiating ceremony for it in the beginning.

There were 6 lions that night. Including a lion cub.

Although I live in Malaysia, I have never seen this

kind of high flying lion dance in person before

A Taiwanese aboriginal dance.

She was doing a Deng LiJun song. Dunno who that is though.

Leng luis playing tradisional instruments.

These 2 fellas are doing some acrobatic performance. Damn bloody cun.

So much strength. They're wearing white, that's why cannot see properly

American high school kids singing Chinese songs.

Ribbon dance. This one also damn stylo. First with blue ribbon...

...then with red ribbon.

This one damn gempak! Face changing performance. There was one part where he shook hands with some audience from the front row and changed his face right in front of their face! I was seating just there in front and still I can't tell whats happening. He didn't use any cloth to cover, just shook his head and poof! different face

~Everybody likes Kung Fu fighting!~

He just got up from a bed of nails. After someone smashed concrete on his chest.

Small kids and violins.

Peacock dance. Banyak gelek.

There was more but I left early. Couldn't sit there for 4 hours. Anyway, Happy CNY again!!!