I promised (and wrote!) this a really really long time ago, and I thought I ought to post it before I started posting the other in-progress stuff ^^;;;
My sister had been hearing alot of good things about West Side Story, so when they came to Malaysia, she was understandably excited. And so, as the story goes, my family and I went to watch the musical on Saturday, 15th May 2010.
My review:
Location: Um, my knowledge of Malaysian geography is really awful (I only know how to get to Mid Valley and my office and maybe Jalan Sultan Ismail from my house LOL) so I can't comment much here ^^;; It was held at Istana Budaya, if that helps at all.
Music: The music was so-so. There were a few good songs that I quite liked, but some other songs weren't really to my liking while others were just lackluster and not very memorable. My sister, her friends and I all agree that the singing really wasn't up to our expectations. I felt that the only one who had a particularly striking voice was the female lead, Maria. On the other hand, if you took away all the lyrics and the singing, the instrumental music was gorgeous!
(On a random note - the song "I feel pretty" sounds much much nicer in Spanish than it does in English!)
Storyline: Well, the storyline is meant to be a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. I will admit that it is probably a favourite basis for many stories, and I can see so many ways in which this basic idea could be an emotional and touching story. However, the way in which the script was written made West Side Story absolutely corny and lame to the core (and not in a good way), not to mention that it sounded like something a hormonal 14 year old would write for fanfiction - and I would definitely be able to recognise that sort of story, having been one of those hormonal fanfiction-writing 14 year olds myself. (:P)
As time goes on and I think back more on the musical, I begin to see more clearly that some parts that I had hated did tie in with the story and give an appropriate background for the setting, but it still doesn't change that they were badly done. Alot of the characters don't have any background story, so I feel like I don't know the character well enough to emphatize with/hate them or understand their side of the story. I also rather felt that the American side of the story was more developed than the Puerto Rican side, which made it seem rather lopsided.
Other comments: The pace of the story is quite odd. It starts off at a slow pace, with alot of contemporary dancing and dialogue, and seems to get even slower as the musical goes on, until it suddenly climaxes and spins to a stop within ten minutes of the end of the musical. Rather too abrupt an ending to be enjoyable. (But there was this very amusing moment where Maria screams like she's that girl in the Exorcist. It was meant to be a solemn and serious moment, but the instant I heard it, I just had to giggle!)
Speaking of Maria, my sister and I found her accent very annoying. Once again, we understand that it's meant to reflect her non-American roots, but still.... we really could do without it! Maria was quite a whiny character too. Maybe it was the whining rather than the accent that got on my nerves!
On another note, there were too many contemporary dances for my liking. Don't get me wrong - they were very beautifully choreographed dances, but my sister and I didn't quite see the point in alot of it. I felt like they were just there to bulk out the performance. As my sister said, it feels more like we're watching So You Think You Can Dance? rather than a musical.
Recommendation: I honestly wouldn't recommend this to anyone. A friend has told me that the movie was really good, so perhaps that would be a better alternative. But at least I can now say I've watched it, and will avoid this musical for the rest of my life.
Monday, 12 July 2010
Friday, 2 July 2010
Event Announcement: Yukata Fair at Jusco Mid Valley
Just a quick post ^_^
There's a yukata fair at Jusco Mid Valley (Ground Floor - just enter from the Center Court entrance and walk straight, and you'll bump into it). I went there yesterday to check it out, and they have quite a large selection!
Prices are quite decent - a yukata and obi set are RM129 for men and women, and RM89 for children's sets. You can also get an assortment of accessories - RM10 for an uchiwa fan, RM39 for parasols, RM20 for geta... There are also some bags, obijime, obi kazari and hair accessories, which really completes each set. I noticed some decorative lace for obi too.
If anyone wants to check it out, please do it soon, because it's only there till this Sunday, 4th July 2010. This is really a great opportunity to get some cheap yukata for Bon Odori or anime/cosplay conventions :)
I've bought two sets for myself and one for my brother already! I also got one for my niece, but it's a little big for her age, so I'm going to have to go back and look for another one her size XP And I got 3 pairs of geta, a fan, one obi kazari and two parasols. I'm in love! I'm planning to go back to buy more ehhehehe~ XP
On a side note, I've been pretty dead coz I was in Singapore for a Summer Wealth Management Program by Merrill Lynch for two weeks. It was really fun! Made loads of new friends XD Didn't really learn so much new stuff, but got to see another aspect of the wealth management industry hehehe. Will post on it sometime soon, if I remember!
Toodles~
There's a yukata fair at Jusco Mid Valley (Ground Floor - just enter from the Center Court entrance and walk straight, and you'll bump into it). I went there yesterday to check it out, and they have quite a large selection!
Prices are quite decent - a yukata and obi set are RM129 for men and women, and RM89 for children's sets. You can also get an assortment of accessories - RM10 for an uchiwa fan, RM39 for parasols, RM20 for geta... There are also some bags, obijime, obi kazari and hair accessories, which really completes each set. I noticed some decorative lace for obi too.
If anyone wants to check it out, please do it soon, because it's only there till this Sunday, 4th July 2010. This is really a great opportunity to get some cheap yukata for Bon Odori or anime/cosplay conventions :)
I've bought two sets for myself and one for my brother already! I also got one for my niece, but it's a little big for her age, so I'm going to have to go back and look for another one her size XP And I got 3 pairs of geta, a fan, one obi kazari and two parasols. I'm in love! I'm planning to go back to buy more ehhehehe~ XP
On a side note, I've been pretty dead coz I was in Singapore for a Summer Wealth Management Program by Merrill Lynch for two weeks. It was really fun! Made loads of new friends XD Didn't really learn so much new stuff, but got to see another aspect of the wealth management industry hehehe. Will post on it sometime soon, if I remember!
Toodles~
Monday, 17 May 2010
It's Alive!!
O_O It's been forever since I last posted!! >___<""" Sorry!!!
Anyway, just a quick update on what's been going on XD
1) Was busy with a conference, which explains my disappearance over March. April and half of May were purely the result of extreme laziness :P
2) Finally had a kimono meet-up in Malaysia!!!! Just three of us girls walking around KLCC :) Will post about it... eventually :P""
3) My brother came home for Easter.... Then got stuck here because of the volcanic ash situation LOL. That was one hell of a week for us...
4) Went to Melaka and Johor for a working visit, then stopped by Singapore for the heck of it. Visited Black Alice but didn't buy anything. Bought lots and lots of yarn for my sister from Spotlight.
5) My sister and I were discussing a yarn cafe. Lots of interesting ideas! XD
6) Went to a lolita meet-up~~ :) *happiness*
7) Watched West Side Story. Waste of time and money. Will post a review next.
That's all the interesting stuff I can remember XD I don't have much of a life to actually blog about lol.
I'm in the middle of typing out a review for West Side Story, so that'll be up next. Toodles!
Anyway, just a quick update on what's been going on XD
1) Was busy with a conference, which explains my disappearance over March. April and half of May were purely the result of extreme laziness :P
2) Finally had a kimono meet-up in Malaysia!!!! Just three of us girls walking around KLCC :) Will post about it... eventually :P""
3) My brother came home for Easter.... Then got stuck here because of the volcanic ash situation LOL. That was one hell of a week for us...
4) Went to Melaka and Johor for a working visit, then stopped by Singapore for the heck of it. Visited Black Alice but didn't buy anything. Bought lots and lots of yarn for my sister from Spotlight.
5) My sister and I were discussing a yarn cafe. Lots of interesting ideas! XD
6) Went to a lolita meet-up~~ :) *happiness*
7) Watched West Side Story. Waste of time and money. Will post a review next.
That's all the interesting stuff I can remember XD I don't have much of a life to actually blog about lol.
I'm in the middle of typing out a review for West Side Story, so that'll be up next. Toodles!
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Outfit Snap: Dinner @ Iketeru
I've been a little tense and irritable lately, so I felt like I really needed to relax over the weekend. Since my sister had recently found out about the new spring menu at Iketeru in KL Hilton and my parents were away for the weekend, the three of us (me, Pig and Pot) decided to try it out on Saturday night. My sister had also wanted to test out her new camera and lens on good food pics :P
I saw an opportunity to dress up in kimono and snatched it up right away! Here are some pictures of my outfit. These were taken after dinner.
(Sorry the yukata is so rumpled... ^^;;;)
Near the pool-bar-area thing. (So articulate)
Again, near the pool.
Back shot. Yeah, it's a walking-pose, but just standing there was so boring, and the pics are really blurry if I actually walk ^^;;
Outside the lift. I really like this shot! The colours are more accurate here, and you can see my musubi more clearly. I think it kind of looks like it's pre-tied LOL!
It took us forever to take this shot of me pouring the dobinmushi (a type of soup) into the serving cup! By the time we were satisfied by the pics, the pot was nearly empty XD Funny how the best-looking one ended up being one of the earlier pics!
We had fun setting a time limit for my sister. "Take the pic, take the pic, take the pic! Oh... The cup is full... So who wants some soup?"
My ensemble on Saturday was a second-hand UNIQLO yukata that I got on YJA. It actually came with a maroon obi, but I wanted something different this time. Green and purple is one of my favourite colour combinations, especially for kimono, so I thought I'd go with it. I think it kind of brings out the colour of the wisteria. The bag and earrings are from my mum's closet, and the fan is a cheap buy from Daisou, with a pattern of bunnies.
I uhhh really meant to wear proper kimono, but my sister's boyfriend and I were playing Prince of Persia on the PS3 and we got carried away ^^; I didn't start getting ready till too late, and (shockingly) I hadn't even decided on an outfit to wear! So I just threw on the simplest thing I could find and put together in a few minutes ^^; Then again, given the recent heatwave, it was probably for the best.
I was really pleased with how neatly my kitsuke turned out, given that I haven't dressed up in two months. It took me about half an hour to dress, which is shockingly long - I must be getting out of practice!
I didn't really realise that just wearing kimono would make me feel so relaxed. It's like any stress just melted off me. And to think that I haven't worn kimono just to go out and have fun in 4 months! Therapeutic, it is.
Of course, the moment I stepped into the office yesterday, whatever stress relief I had was all zapped up immediately haha :P Hmmm, another excuse to dress up and go out again? XD
Anyway, just wanted to share some random food pics:
My sister's starter course.
Her sashimi course.
Her garlic fried rice.
The ice cream looked better than it tastes haha.
Rommel's dessert course from his hanami bento.
My choices were kind of boring for photos, and other photos didn't turn out so well, so just these pics.
I'm really sorry you can't see how nice the pics really are, coz they go rather wonky once we shrink them, but we have to shrink them - our house internet can't take the stress of uploading very large photos ^^;; So, we're stuck with small not-so-nice pics *sigh*
Ta, people! I'm off to eat dinner.
I saw an opportunity to dress up in kimono and snatched it up right away! Here are some pictures of my outfit. These were taken after dinner.
(Sorry the yukata is so rumpled... ^^;;;)
Near the pool-bar-area thing. (So articulate)
Again, near the pool.
Back shot. Yeah, it's a walking-pose, but just standing there was so boring, and the pics are really blurry if I actually walk ^^;;
Outside the lift. I really like this shot! The colours are more accurate here, and you can see my musubi more clearly. I think it kind of looks like it's pre-tied LOL!
It took us forever to take this shot of me pouring the dobinmushi (a type of soup) into the serving cup! By the time we were satisfied by the pics, the pot was nearly empty XD Funny how the best-looking one ended up being one of the earlier pics!
We had fun setting a time limit for my sister. "Take the pic, take the pic, take the pic! Oh... The cup is full... So who wants some soup?"
My ensemble on Saturday was a second-hand UNIQLO yukata that I got on YJA. It actually came with a maroon obi, but I wanted something different this time. Green and purple is one of my favourite colour combinations, especially for kimono, so I thought I'd go with it. I think it kind of brings out the colour of the wisteria. The bag and earrings are from my mum's closet, and the fan is a cheap buy from Daisou, with a pattern of bunnies.
I uhhh really meant to wear proper kimono, but my sister's boyfriend and I were playing Prince of Persia on the PS3 and we got carried away ^^; I didn't start getting ready till too late, and (shockingly) I hadn't even decided on an outfit to wear! So I just threw on the simplest thing I could find and put together in a few minutes ^^; Then again, given the recent heatwave, it was probably for the best.
I was really pleased with how neatly my kitsuke turned out, given that I haven't dressed up in two months. It took me about half an hour to dress, which is shockingly long - I must be getting out of practice!
I didn't really realise that just wearing kimono would make me feel so relaxed. It's like any stress just melted off me. And to think that I haven't worn kimono just to go out and have fun in 4 months! Therapeutic, it is.
Of course, the moment I stepped into the office yesterday, whatever stress relief I had was all zapped up immediately haha :P Hmmm, another excuse to dress up and go out again? XD
Anyway, just wanted to share some random food pics:
My sister's starter course.
Her sashimi course.
Her garlic fried rice.
The ice cream looked better than it tastes haha.
Rommel's dessert course from his hanami bento.
My choices were kind of boring for photos, and other photos didn't turn out so well, so just these pics.
I'm really sorry you can't see how nice the pics really are, coz they go rather wonky once we shrink them, but we have to shrink them - our house internet can't take the stress of uploading very large photos ^^;; So, we're stuck with small not-so-nice pics *sigh*
Ta, people! I'm off to eat dinner.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Gluttony~
It's been a full six days in a row of pigging out, with feasting and celebrations abound! I've been having such heavy lunches and dinners lately. I have no doubt I'll be gaining a few kg just by living through this next month.
Even yesterday, which was Ash Wednesday and therefore supposed to be a day of fasting and abstinence, had two full meals! We didn't eat meat, but we sure as hell didn't fast :P
*sighs* But on the topic of Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.. What should I give up for this Lent? I don't know... A little late to be thinking about it, but I honestly have been more preoccupied with CNY ^^; So much so to the point where I'd forgotten completely about Valentine's Day till yesterday ^^;;;;
Anyway, on a random off-topic moment, I've been trying to put together an outfit for Valentine's Day, late though it may be. It's quite alot harder than I thought, because I had hoped to combine my Valentine's Day outfit and my CNY outfit into one, and that's kiiiiiind of hard to do when I'm lacking alot of red pieces in my kimono closet. So..... that outfit may take a while in coming, but I'll make sure it comes!!
On that note, should I make another outfit for Lent this year? Or should I make one for Easter? XD
Even yesterday, which was Ash Wednesday and therefore supposed to be a day of fasting and abstinence, had two full meals! We didn't eat meat, but we sure as hell didn't fast :P
*sighs* But on the topic of Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.. What should I give up for this Lent? I don't know... A little late to be thinking about it, but I honestly have been more preoccupied with CNY ^^; So much so to the point where I'd forgotten completely about Valentine's Day till yesterday ^^;;;;
Anyway, on a random off-topic moment, I've been trying to put together an outfit for Valentine's Day, late though it may be. It's quite alot harder than I thought, because I had hoped to combine my Valentine's Day outfit and my CNY outfit into one, and that's kiiiiiind of hard to do when I'm lacking alot of red pieces in my kimono closet. So..... that outfit may take a while in coming, but I'll make sure it comes!!
On that note, should I make another outfit for Lent this year? Or should I make one for Easter? XD
Friday, 12 February 2010
Happy Chinese New Year!
I am absolutely thrilled to finally be home and celebrating Chinese New Year with my family! It'll be the first time I'm celebrating CNY in about 5 years, excluding this one time my friends and I had a mini yee-sang and steamboat party in my 2nd year room at Concord.
Soooo..... Since I'll be kind of busy this weekend, what with the Eve of CNY tomorrow and the first day of CNY on Sunday, I thought I'd just post an early:
GONG XI FA CAI! May the Year of the Tiger bring you prosperity!
Ehehe. Speaking of tigers, I'm thinking of creating a tiger (or cat) themed outfit for this year, much like xiner did, now that the year of the tiger is about to start. (FYI, the year of the Tiger doesn't start until CNY - the weeks before that are still considered as the "tail" of the year of the Cow)
Aaaaaand, speaking of kimono.... I know my mum said I could buy a kimono if the Jakarta trip went well. But, well... My mum bought me this bag from Coach's 2010 Valentine's Gifts collection, so I won't be getting a new kimono anytime soon ^^;
Sorry to disappoint, but the bag is just too cute!! And wonderfully big and convenient too ^^; I think I'll be trying to come up with an outfit that will match this bag ehehhehe~
Toodles, people!~
Soooo..... Since I'll be kind of busy this weekend, what with the Eve of CNY tomorrow and the first day of CNY on Sunday, I thought I'd just post an early:
Ehehe. Speaking of tigers, I'm thinking of creating a tiger (or cat) themed outfit for this year, much like xiner did, now that the year of the tiger is about to start. (FYI, the year of the Tiger doesn't start until CNY - the weeks before that are still considered as the "tail" of the year of the Cow)
Aaaaaand, speaking of kimono.... I know my mum said I could buy a kimono if the Jakarta trip went well. But, well... My mum bought me this bag from Coach's 2010 Valentine's Gifts collection, so I won't be getting a new kimono anytime soon ^^;
Sorry to disappoint, but the bag is just too cute!! And wonderfully big and convenient too ^^; I think I'll be trying to come up with an outfit that will match this bag ehehhehe~
Toodles, people!~
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Event Aftermath: Yukata Picnic April 2009: Part 2!
I'm back from the Jakarta trip! It was... hectic. And I felt so tired even though I didn't do all that much hahaha. But it was a good trip :) We saw 22 companies in 3 days.
Anyway! I promised I'd post additional pics of my yukata picnic with Mel and Mich back in April 2009 in this post, and here they are! These are the fun pics. My earlier post had the boring ones hahahaha.
I stuffed Mel into something with PINK!
Of course, I had to give her a matching pink bag to use :P
Eh, ignore me in my kimono undies in the background :P
While we're getting ready.
Random Darcy photo XD
Me at the picnic..
I love this pic!
If there wasn't a background of buildings, I could almost pretend I'm in a forest somewhere ehehehe.
As we were packing up to go back in:
Shoe shot! I rather like this pic, actually~
The three of us~ X3
Showing off cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery :D
*sighs happily* That was a nice walk down memory lane. I could almost feel the cold air of London while I was looking through those pics. It could've been the air conditioning, though :P
I hope you liked the pics! ^^ And I really really hope it makes up for part of the lack of updates ^^; Toodles~
Anyway! I promised I'd post additional pics of my yukata picnic with Mel and Mich back in April 2009 in this post, and here they are! These are the fun pics. My earlier post had the boring ones hahahaha.
I stuffed Mel into something with PINK!
Of course, I had to give her a matching pink bag to use :P
Eh, ignore me in my kimono undies in the background :P
While we're getting ready.
Random Darcy photo XD
Me at the picnic..
I love this pic!
If there wasn't a background of buildings, I could almost pretend I'm in a forest somewhere ehehehe.
As we were packing up to go back in:
Shoe shot! I rather like this pic, actually~
The three of us~ X3
Showing off cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery :D
*sighs happily* That was a nice walk down memory lane. I could almost feel the cold air of London while I was looking through those pics. It could've been the air conditioning, though :P
I hope you liked the pics! ^^ And I really really hope it makes up for part of the lack of updates ^^; Toodles~
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