23 April 2010
Last nite, we went to see Lewis Pragasam's Asiabeat & Friends Concert at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and it turned out to be one of my best musical outings so far for the year. To me, it was music at its best! Of course, Lewis was in his metal with his drums. But it was his guest, Tengku Ryo from Indonesia, who stole my heart. With his violin, he mersmerised the audience with his rendition of traditional Zapin Melayu music fusing it with the beat of the Tango. It was fantastic! This young fellow had a story of his life to all his fusion numbers - mixing the sounds of the violin with the trombone, tabla and the drums, with back-up sounds of the piano, guitar and the keyboard. Then there was John 'Kaizan' Neptune, playing the Japanese flute and his home-made tabla of some sort. Local singers include Zainal Abidin and a young local group Caprice.
To me, Lewis Pragasam applied reserach and development(R&D) in the music discipline, integrating the beautiful sounds of specific musical instruments to produce new music. Kudos to Lewis and Asiabeat!
~If music be the food of love, play on~ Shakespeare
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
13 April 2010
Our local daily The Star today carried an interesting article on oil palm harvesting under the Commodities Talk Column by Reporter Hanim Adnan. Yes, the call to mechanize oil palm harvesting is very appropriate right now, and also then since 3 decades ago. Much R&D work on this subject had been done and is still going on at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board(MPOB), but so far, no breakthrough technology has emerged to mechanize the harvesting process. The Mechanical Harvesting Pole(MHP) aside, the strategy now is to grow the dumpy oil palm, short but more productive species so that the harvesters do not need to use the long and clumsy harveting poles to harvest the bounty. I totally agree that harvesting should not be a labour-intensive process as what it is now, in the light of labour shortage in the plantations. I am sure estate and plantation managers would very much welcome farm robots working their fields, but are they able to recognise the ripe FFB to pluck?
P/S In memory of the late Tn Hj Ir. Ahmad bin Hitam (1949-2009) of MPOB, who spearheaded pioneering work in oil palm mechanization in PORIM/MPOB. Al-Fatihah....
Our local daily The Star today carried an interesting article on oil palm harvesting under the Commodities Talk Column by Reporter Hanim Adnan. Yes, the call to mechanize oil palm harvesting is very appropriate right now, and also then since 3 decades ago. Much R&D work on this subject had been done and is still going on at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board(MPOB), but so far, no breakthrough technology has emerged to mechanize the harvesting process. The Mechanical Harvesting Pole(MHP) aside, the strategy now is to grow the dumpy oil palm, short but more productive species so that the harvesters do not need to use the long and clumsy harveting poles to harvest the bounty. I totally agree that harvesting should not be a labour-intensive process as what it is now, in the light of labour shortage in the plantations. I am sure estate and plantation managers would very much welcome farm robots working their fields, but are they able to recognise the ripe FFB to pluck?
P/S In memory of the late Tn Hj Ir. Ahmad bin Hitam (1949-2009) of MPOB, who spearheaded pioneering work in oil palm mechanization in PORIM/MPOB. Al-Fatihah....
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Sepang International Circuit(SIC)
4 April 2010
I have never been an F1 fan, but yesterday I was there at the Sepang International Circuit(SIC) to watch the big race. (I was there at the make-do Medical Centre on the ticket of Moody International (Dato' A Aziz Mat is one of the auditors of Moody International auditing the Angkatan Tentera, the Hospital of which is providing the medical services and treatment for the F1 drivers). I actually saw in person David Schumacher,Lewis Hamilton and a few other drivers. Before the race, Schummy stopped by the Medical Centre to go to the loo...he is thinner than I thought, smiling away and partially greeting the passers by there. And Lewis Hamilton is a very small guy, very unlike his photos. This fella is reserved and not smiling like Schummy. In fact, other drivers like Alonso and others from Japan do not even bother to shake hands with fans who reached out to them. Poor guy.....Schummy, after he was out of the race, he pleaded to the press not to take his photo...stressed, he said.
The Sepang International Circuit was built 6-7 years ago on a former oil palm plantation. Hence you can see in the foreground, if you watched the TV coverage, beautifully lined oil palm trees bordering the Circuit grounds. And a close up of the scenery, you would be able to see the oil palm folige on your TV screens, bordering the scenery. Being a lover of the palm species, I find it very picturesque indeed. Malaysia, the No 1 producer of palm oil, is proud to host this big international event every year here in our homeland. Bringing in the tourist dollars, very good for our image.....Malaysia Boleh!
I have never been an F1 fan, but yesterday I was there at the Sepang International Circuit(SIC) to watch the big race. (I was there at the make-do Medical Centre on the ticket of Moody International (Dato' A Aziz Mat is one of the auditors of Moody International auditing the Angkatan Tentera, the Hospital of which is providing the medical services and treatment for the F1 drivers). I actually saw in person David Schumacher,Lewis Hamilton and a few other drivers. Before the race, Schummy stopped by the Medical Centre to go to the loo...he is thinner than I thought, smiling away and partially greeting the passers by there. And Lewis Hamilton is a very small guy, very unlike his photos. This fella is reserved and not smiling like Schummy. In fact, other drivers like Alonso and others from Japan do not even bother to shake hands with fans who reached out to them. Poor guy.....Schummy, after he was out of the race, he pleaded to the press not to take his photo...stressed, he said.
The Sepang International Circuit was built 6-7 years ago on a former oil palm plantation. Hence you can see in the foreground, if you watched the TV coverage, beautifully lined oil palm trees bordering the Circuit grounds. And a close up of the scenery, you would be able to see the oil palm folige on your TV screens, bordering the scenery. Being a lover of the palm species, I find it very picturesque indeed. Malaysia, the No 1 producer of palm oil, is proud to host this big international event every year here in our homeland. Bringing in the tourist dollars, very good for our image.....Malaysia Boleh!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
