Finger painting

Sunset at the beach front of the ParkRoyal Hotel in Batu Ferringhi, Penang. Photos taken on 9 Sep 2009:

This wasn't an accidental photo. I really meant it to turn out this way.

Absolute crap

I feel angry that this person, Rais Yatim, is now claiming that contrary to what many believed, the federal government had not allocated funds for heritage conservation in George Town. Read it here.

Whose eyes are he trying to pull wool over? He's the blardy bugger in charge of the ministry overseeing culture and he cares two hoots about culture conservation and preservation in this country. He has no business to be in that seat if he continues to harbour such an attitude. The people of Penang will remember him for this blatant denial. Good-for-nothing idiot.

Naturally, Lim Guan Eng was reported to be quite furious when he learnt this. "We urge the federal government to play its part to preserve, protect and promote heritage in Penang and George Town. If there is no RM50 million as promised, it shows the federal government does not care about the heritage status and does not value UNESCO’s recognition.”

No soft opening for Hard Rock Hotel, Penang

As I some time on my hands last Wednesday, I made a detour to the former Casuarina Hotel in Batu Ferringhi which has been turned into the Hard Rock Hotel. I could only wander on the grounds outside the building because, according to the security guard, the place isn't open yet. There's not even a soft opening although I could see people pulling their travel bags into the lobby. Those, said the guard, are hotel employees who are coming to get the place ready for the Big Day on 19 Sep 2009.

Never mind, I though, there's still time for a nice photo outside the premises.

Oh, stop it!

When I flew down to Kuala Lumpur last month, I decided to do something rather drastic. Nothing dangerous or risky, mind you, it was just .... something drastic. You see, I ... wore ... a ... face ... mask!

Yes, like the thousands of kiasu air travellers who wished to keep away from the influenza A(H1N1) virus, I decided to don a face mask at the departure lounge, on board the aircraft and inside the transit bus. But hey, it's still safer to be on the safe side of health, right?

So there I was, with my face mask on, and - in the words of my daughter - camwhoring away in anonymity. Nobody to recognise you unless you are this one pair of celebrity couple from Hongkong who were in Malaysia recently for his "ancestor's" funeral. And I'm not anywhere close to being famous or infamous.

Anyway, I came across this titillating piece of "Malaysia Boleh" news reporting by Bernama, our esteemed national news agency. A story dated 9 Aug 2009 (that's a month ago) quoted someone as saying that masturbation and homosexual practices should be avoided as they are among preventive measures one could take against Influenza A (H1N1).

This person, a Dr VM Palaniappan, said that such activities caused the body to develop friction heat which in turn, would produce acid to make the body hyper-acidised.

"Thus, the body becomes an easy target for H1N1 infection," he told Bernama, emphasising however, that normal sexual union between members of the opposite sex was absolutely safe.

Eh ... I think you'd better read the rest of the story by yourself here. A reminder, though, just following his advice would at the very least put you on his safe side, okay? No mask required!

Let us respond positively to Steve Jobs' appeal

Well, Steve Jobs is back at Apple after taking leave at the beginning of the year to undergo a liver transplant. People attending the Apple Rock n Roll event in San Francisco yesterday saw a gaunt and frail-looking Jobs strolling onto stage in his trademark black tee and blue jeans to explain his absence, thank the crowd for their support and then unveil new features for the iPod but which did not include the strongly-rumoured deal for Beatles music.

Below is only a static picture, so please don't be tempted to click on the "play" button. It doesn't work. You can always search for him on YouTube, such as here.

But basically, he passed along this important and significant message to the audience and beyond, which I'm highlighting in red: "I'm very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know, about five months ago I had a liver transplant. I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. I am alive because of their generosity. So ... I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to become organ donors. I'd like to thank everyone in the Apple community for their concern. It means a lot ... So, I'm vertical, I'm back at Apple and loving every minute of it. It's wonderful."

Bluegrass/country weekend

In his lifetime, Johnny Cash (26 Feb 1932 – 12 Sep 2003) was one of the most prolific recording music artistes of all time. During his lengthy career that spanned from 1954 to 2003, his record labels released 96 albums and 153 singles.

This is one of two albums in my possession: Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits, Volume 1. It had songs like Jackson, I Walk The Line, Understand Your Man, Orange Blossom Special, Ring Of Fire and It Ain't Me Babe, all big hits for the Man In Black.

One of my favourites on this album was Orange Blossom Special which featured Cash on the harmonica. Great mimic of the whistle on the old steam rail engine! I have another version of this song - an instrumental version - with a fiddle instead of a harmonica. It comes from this unique triple album called Will The Circle Be Unbroken. It's a unique landmark album because I consider it a very important part of America's musical heritage, drawing together some of the most important names in American bluegrass and country music of the pre-1971 era and performed by big country/bluegrass names like Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Vassar Clements, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Merle Travis, Mother Maybelle Carter and of course, not forgetting the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Will The Circle Be Unbroken was, after all, a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band project.


Side 1: Grand Ole Opry Song (Jimmy Martin), Keep On The Sunny Side (Mother Maybelle Carter), Nashville Blues (Earl Scruggs), You Are My Flower (John McEuen), The Precious Jewel (Roy Acuff), Dark As A Dungeon (Merle Travis)
Side 2: Tennessee Stud (Doc Watson), Black Mountain Rag (Doc Watson), Wreck On The Highway (Roy Acuff), The End Of The World (Pete 'Oswald' Kirby), I Saw The Light (Roy Acuff)
Side 3: Sunny Side Of The Mountain (Jimmy Martin), Nine Pound Hammer (Merle Travis), Losing You (Jimmy Martin), Honky Tonkin' (Jimmie Fadden), If You Don't Know My Mind (Jimmy Martin), My Walkin' Shoes (Jimmy Martin)
Side 4: Lonesome Fiddle Blues (Vassar Clements), Cannonball Rag (Merle Travis), Avalanche (Vassar Clements), Flint Hill Special (Earl Scruggs), Togary Mountain (John McEuen), Earl's Breakdown (Earl Scruggs), Orange Blossom Special (Vassar Clements), Wabash Cannonball (Pete 'Oswald' Kirby)
Side 5: Lost Highway (Jim Ibbotson), Way Downtown (Doc Watson), Down Yonder (Doc Watson), Pins And Needles (Roy Acuff), Honky Tonk Blues (Jeff Hanna), Sailin' On To Hawaii (Pete 'Oswald' Kirby)
Side 6: I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes (Mother Maybelle Carter), I'm A Pilgrim (Merle Travis), Wildwood Flower (Mother Maybelle Carter), Soldier's Joy (Earl Scruggs), Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Mother Maybelle Carter), Both Sides Now (Randy Scruggs)


This was the album that started everything off for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy - which contained the hit song Mr Bojangles but it also held other gems like that Kenny Loggins number, House At Pooh Corner.

Side 1: Some Of Shelly's Blues, Prodigal's Return, The Cure, Travelin' Mood, Chicken Reel, Yukon Railroad, Livin' Without You, Clinch Mountain Backstep, Rave On, Billy In The Low Ground, Jesse James
Side 2: Uncle Charlie Interview, Mr Bojangles, Opus 36, Santa Rosa, Propinquity, Uncle Charlie, Randy Lynn Rag, House At Pooh Corner, Swanee River, Uncle Charlie Interview #2

Here are two highly recommended albums by the masters themselves:

From the wikipedia: Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (born 3 Mar 1923) is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded.

Just dig that Abe Lincoln beard on Doc Watson's Memories:
Side 1: Rambling Hobo, Shady Grove, Wake Up Little Maggie, Peartree, Keep on the Sunny Side, Double File and Salt Creek
Side 2: Curly Headed Baby, Miss the Mississippi and You, Wabash Cannonball, My Rose of Old Kentucky, Blues Stay Away from Me
Side 3: Walking Boss, Make Me a Pallet, In the Jailhouse Now, Steel Guitar Rag, Hang Your Head in Shame, You Don't Know My Mind Blues
Side 4: Moody River, Don't Tell Me Your Troubles, Columbus Stockade, Mama Don't Allow No Music, Thoughts of Never

Again, from the Wikipedia: Vassar Clements (25 Apr 1928 – 16 Aug 2005) was a Grammy Award-winning American virtuoso jazz, swing and bluegrass fiddler.

Vassar Clements' The Bluegrass Session:
Side 1: Reno Shuffle, Vasillee II, It's Mighty Dark to Travel, Stompin Grazz, Nine Pound Hammer
Side 2: Six More Miles, Scuffin, White House Blues, Swingin Low, Rocky Top, Silly Millie

Stirring their own pot

Something disturbing happened when I was down in Kuala Lumpur recently. About 23km down the road from where I was staying, a group of racists had cut off the head of a cow and marched with it to the Selangor State Secretariat building in Shah Alam, ignoring any disturbance to the racial harmony and sensitivities in this country. They were protesting the re-location of an Indian temple to a different part of the state capital.

What was remarkable, if this was an appropriate word - was that the police stood by in full view of this march. They displayed a newly found restraint, unlike their heavy-handed clampdown on Hindraf, Bersih and recent anti-ISA demonstrations in the Klang Valley, which was most unusual.

It makes me wonder. In this country, why can't all the races live together with respect towards one another? I thought that after 52 years of independence, we in Malaysia can tolerate and accept one another for what we are worth. I'm wrong. If anything else, we Malaysians have become less tolerant and more extremist. It's true. Parading around with a cow's head does nothing more than to show off the perversity of the protestors who do not hesitate to use religion to provoke others. And this coming in the Muslim month of Ramadan and immediately after their Friday prayers. More so, it was just days before Merdeka Day when everybody should be happily celebrating the 52nd anniversary of independence.

It was actually disappointing but not surprising to read the Umno big guns coming to the defence of the people behind the incident. That Hishammuddin the Home Minister actually agreed with his racist "brothers" before he finally decided to do an about-turn one day later to say that the protesters should be brought to book. Whether he seriously meant it or not is a different matter, though. Also disappointing was the blind support that Mahathir's son gave Hishammuddin.

All these people only demonstrate the herd instinct (sorry for this painful pun) behind the stupid people in the public eye who should know better than to make such statements that can provoke more unhappiness and indignation. Have we not had enough of them? I have.

Maybe I should also add this observation as an after-thought. There is no mutual respect. The non-Malay people in this country show sensitiveness towards the culture of the Malays but the reverse is not true. The Malays themselves do not understand or exercise the same sensitiveness towards the cultures of the non-Malays. Why is it a one-way traffic or has the Federal Government failed us in promoting harmony and respect among the people?

Pre-dawn

Taken from the Penang Bridge on 4 Sep 2009 at about 6 o'clock in the morning...

An arm and a leg

Don't even think about ordering food for delivery to your room whenever you stay at hotels. You'll regret the Room Service, for sure, as you'll be paying an arm and a leg for the privilege. I was looking at the Room Service Menu of one of the prominent hotels in Kuala Lumpur recently and I almost fell off my chair when I saw the exorbitant prices charged for ordinary hawker food.


Why, for one plate of their Penang Char Koay Teow, I can have 10 plates of the same in Bukit Mertajam, with some shillings returned as spare change. The same goes for Cantonese Hor Fun or KL Curry Laksa and the rest of the stuff in their menu.

Drunk at the chess board

Pardon me if you have been reading too many chess stories on my blog in recent days but I want to say - definitely, in no uncertain terms, with a lot of conviction - that barring any unforeseen developments, this should be the last one here for some time.

Today, I just read an amusing story -- well, it's amusing to me anyway but it's certainly not amusing to the subject concerned -- about a rather well-known chess grandmaster managing the feat of falling asleep at the chess board in the middle of a tournament game yesterday. The event: the Kolkata open grandmasters chess tournament. The venue: the Alekhine Chess Club in Gorky Sadan, India. The player: Vladislav Tkachiev.

Oh, that guy Tkachiev. Know him? Formerly of Kazakhstan but now a French citizen. He has played in Malaysia before, you know, but that was in 1993. It was the expanded Asian team championship now encompassing the Asian side of the countries of the broken-up Soviet Union. The event was held at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur and the untitled Tkachiev, then only 20 years old and rated 2380, seemed to have bowled over all the ladies at the event. He was already the type that could walk down the street with two ladies on his arms.

Apparently in Kolkata, the liquor had gone to his head. He turned up drunk at the venue, slept through his moves several times over and eventually had to be carried off.

The Indian Express newspaper reported: "The match lasted over an hour, with the French player repeatedly dozing off while contemplating a move. Each time he fell asleep, players around would try to wake him up with a shake of the shoulder. Some even offered him water, and Tkachiev, having briefly refreshed himself at the change room while his opponent waited, dozed off again and eventually had to be carried off."

Tkachiev’s opponent Praveen Kumar didn’t want to say much except: “I was given the point after the match, that’s all.” However, an Alekhine Chess Club official said that the incident was bad advertisement for the tournament and that a meeting would be held to take action against the French player.

All I can say is, the liquor had obviously left a bad taste, not only for Tkachiev but also for the organisers.

In the past, Tkachiev himself had admitted that he led a racy, if not hedonistic, lifestyle and found it difficult to cope with lengthy tournaments at long time controls. His passion is in blitz games where his real strength lies. Nevertheless, with a 2669 rating in the World Chess Federation's September 2009 rating list, the 35-year-old grandmaster is currently ranked 58th in the world. Not bad for a drunken master.

Chess games of the century? Don't you believe it!

"Don't forget, huh, you have to be here at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning." With these words, I was unwillingly cornered by Singapore's international master Tan Lian Ann into playing some games with Dato Tan Chin Nam when I was in Kuala Lumpur last week. Somehow over dinner on Friday, Lian Ann had "arranged" for me to play with Dato Tan the next morning. He'll be the arbiter, Lian Ann said. Hah! But Saturday morning was supposed to be the opening of the Merdeka rapid chess team open tournament. I thought in the hustle and bustle of the moment, I could escape but the inevitable happened. Lian Ann tracked me down at 11 o'clock and said Dato Tan was still waiting for me. Ahh, what to do? So reluctantly, I dragged myself away from the CitiTel ballroom to face the inevitable. My heart sank a little when I saw how determined he was. He had even placed a white pawn and a black pawn in his hands and allowed me to draw lots for colour. Don't look down on Dato Tan's chess skill. He may be an OBE (over bloody 80) but give him half a chance, he can whop a person over the chess board. Many years ago, one New Zealand Fide Master found this out to his surprise and regret. As for me, I had found this out a few years ago when I gave him "half a chance". Therefore, I sat down to the games - we played two - with some resolve not to give him any more "half a chance". I didn't. Although I did offer him a "quarter of a chance", he failed to find the best move on one or two occasions. The moments passed and I was saved. The next morning Dato Tan was again at the tournament hall. He wanted a third game, so we played. With the Merdeka chess games going on behind us, so we played. Immersed in a world of our own and oblivious to everything else, so we played. Again, all he had were just some "quarter chances". So I preserved my streak against him. I think that my game has regained some measure of respect in his eyes...

Clash of the eager hands

Whose hands are these?

The moving fingers play
and having played, move on ...
(apologies to Omar Khayyam)

Obviously, not mine. I just happened to be standing around and aiming my camera on the chess board when suddenly, there was this flurry of motion. Both hands met in the centre of the board to exchange and remove pieces.

And this was the position in the aftermath of the clash of hands.

BN's apparatchik

What did I write earlier? This was bound to happen. I don't even need to be a bad fortune teller to make this kind of prediction. Apparatchiks of the blardy federal government, that's what the EC is all about!

To save you the problem of clicking on the link above, let me repeat what I wrote on 21 Aug:

It can jolly well happen again in Kedah, especially if the EC takes the open hint from Muhyiddin Yassin who said on Wednesday, “I’m convinced that based on the facts presented by the assemblyman, he was absent not because he deliberately did not want to attend. So, if the EC can consider this fact, the seat need not be declared vacant.” Yes, that's the same guy that said there was no controversy over their choice of candidate for the Permatang Pasir by-election.

Do you feel short-changed by RON95?

After all the hype over the introduction of RON95 petrol in Malaysia and an earlier promise that this grade of petrol would be sold at RM1.75 per litre, the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister has suddenly announced that the new price from 1 Sep 2009 would be RM1.80 per litre.

The excuse given was that the world oil prices have jumped in recent months. “Actually the price of RON95, if going by world markets, is RM1.89 per litre but the government does not want the people to feel the rise so it had set the price at RM1.80,” Ismail Sabri Yaakob said. You know and I know that that's pure Bullshit. That's going back on a promise because now the Federal government is selling us a lower grade petrol at the same price as the original RON97 petrol.

Good to be back

Despite having a nice chess holiday break at the CitiTel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, there's nothing to beat being back home in Penang and boy, it's really good to be back home among familiar surroundings. I've got loads of photographs to transfer from the camera to the desktop but I'm not too confident about their quality because all of them were taken in rather low light conditions. The lighting in the hotel's ballroom was way too dim for my liking and I had to hand-hold the camera at speeds as low as one-third of a second. So, I suspect that most of the photos will turn out blurry.

I was very happy to have spent two days of quality time with my daughter too. She came down from Petaling Jaya to the hotel on Saturday and I took the time off to wander with her here and there. And of course, the meals we took together. I enjoyed myself and I hope she enjoyed herself too. I can't wait for the next time to see her again.

Of course, met with a whole gang of chess friends from far and near, to name but only a few of them that I can remember off-hand here: Hamid, Gregory, Ibrahim, Tse Pin, Andrew, Soon Keong, Wahid, Bernard, Najib, Jimmy Liew, Mok, Chern Ee, Subramaniam, Chin Seng, Yee Weng, Nicholas, Marcus, Tick Hong, Beng Keong, Christi, Min Wang, Giam, Khairunisa, Hairulov, Fadli, Larry, Eric, Tze Han, Jimmy Ng, John Wong .... and of course, not forgetting Dato Tan. His looming figure continues to cast a huge shadow over the whole of the Malaysia Chess Festival.

Hash runs at BM Hill

Just some of the paper trails left behind by hares on the track up the Bukit Mertajam hill in Ceruk To'kun. I've been collecting all the different designs. Luckily, they are all biodegradable or otherwise, there'd be a whole lot of rubbish on the hill. These runs are organised by enthusiasts from as far as Butterworth, Kulim, Lunas and Baling.

A small step for (a) man

Anniversaries seem to be taking up some of my time lately, what with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the 50th anniversary of the Time Out album. Here's another one and I know that I am 40 days late in writing something about it. Had meant to do it earlier BUT was distracted by other things. Anyway, here is my take on the 40th anniversary commemoration of the Apollo 11 moonlanding. I never got to see it happen live. If I remember correctly, I had to buy a cinema ticket to see a documentary on this historic event. Well, the Moon Goddess and the Rabbit-On-The-Moon never seemed the same again after Armstrong and Aldrin kicked dust on the moon way back on 20 July 1969.

And here is a picture of Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong with United States president Obama who praised the trio for their "heroism, calm under pressure" and "grace." Possibly, this could be the last time we'll ever see the three of them together again.

"I think that all of us recall the moment in which mankind finally was untethered from this planet and was able to explore the stars, when one of our own step on the moon and leave that imprint that is there to this day," the president said. "As a boy living in Hawaii, I would perch on my grandfather's shoulders and watch the space capsules land in the Pacific Ocean. We'd go out and pretend like they could see us as we were waving at folks coming home," he said. "They inspired an entire generation of scientists and engineers."

Finally, this was the publicity shot from 1969. People never knew whether they could make it back home to earth alive. According to Collins, he considered their chances at 50-50 only. So it was a great risk they took and they came away as heroes, perhaps the greatest heroes in the history of civilisation.

And where was I when all this happened? In school, of course! Listening to the historic moon walk live over the public address system during Physics class.

Pteropus vampyrus, Malaysian flying fox, koay chee bah

When I was a young kid, my father would occasionally bring back a great big dead animal that looked like a fox with wings. The koay chee bah, he would tell me and it came from some friends who had returned from a hunting trip in the jungle. Then my mother would go to work at it to rip the skin off the animal, clean it of the entrails and plonk it into a pot to be double boiled with some herbs until the soup turned dark. Supposedly a very nourishing soup for the body, according to her.

Well, the koay chee bah or the Malaysian Flying Fox is reportedly tottering on the endangered list. This is an excerpt from a report from the BBC online.

Scientists are urging the government of Malaysia to ban the hunting of the world's largest fruit bat.

Researchers say the large flying fox will be wiped out on the Malaysian peninsula if the current unsustainable level of hunting continues.

Writing in the Journal of Applied Ecology they say around 22,000 of the animals are legally hunted each year and more killed illegally.

They say the species could be extinct there by as early as 2015.

Lead author, Dr Jonathan Epstein of Wildlife Trust, told BBC News: "They eat fruit and nectar and in doing so they drop seeds around and pollinate trees. So they are critical to the propagation of rainforest plants."

The most optimistic estimates put the population of flying foxes in peninsular Malaysia at 500,000.

The animals are hunted for food, medicine and sport. Shooting takes place at dusk as the bats set out to forage overnight.

The researchers say their population models suggest that if current hunting rates continue it will take between six and 81 years for the species to be hunted to extinction.

Flying foxes, or Pteropus vampyrus, are protected in neighbouring Thailand but hunting is allowed in Malaysia and parts of Indonesia.

Wedding dinner date during Hungry Ghost month

One of my relatives came around to my house recently to deliver an invitation card to their son's wedding. We are happy for you and we'll be there at the tea ceremony and wedding dinner, we told them.

"Eh, by the way, when is it?" I asked. Custom dictated that it would be too impolite of us to rip open the invitation card on the spot to look at the details. So we asked.

"Ninth of September," they replied. "Ninth of September?" I asked, just to make sure that I'd heard correctly. "Yes, ninth of September," they echoed.

The reason I'm relating all these is because 9 Sep 2009 lies smack within the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar which starts on Thursday. That's the month of the hungry ghosts, the month when the gates of hell are thrown open to let the ghosts roam the earth.

Under normal circumstances, the Chinese do not wish to hold any celebration during this month. In particular, they'll avoid marriages and all services related to the tying of the knot. It's a case of "just in case". Just in case, that is, their luck is no good and they are affected by the bad vibes.

"Aiyah," my relative said, "I leave it to those young people, lah. They plan everything without letting us know. We can only go along with them. They were registered two years ago on 7 July 2007 and now they want their dinner on 9 Sep 2009. It's up to them...."

Malaysia's newest chess international master

I congratulate Mok Tze Meng, Malaysia's latest chess player to achieve the International Master title. He got his third norm from the IGB Arthur Tan Malaysia open chess tournament which ends today at the CitiTel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. He was beyond words, preferring to shake my hands and grinning from ear-to-ear.

He got his first international master norm at the Penang masters tournament in 2000 and his second norm at the Manila SEA Games in 2005. Now, all that is required of him is to raise his Fide rating to above 2400 points and the title should be his.

I was talking to Dato Tan Chin Nam earlier and he mentioned that Mok will get his RM5,000 reward for his title achievement. He had been promising this reward to Malaysians who could achieve the international master title since 1974 and he said that he would still give it to the next three Malaysians. And after that, the reward will end. In the meantime, the reward of RM30,000 for a local grandmaster is still up for grabs.

UPDATES later....