Marsha Maung:: Freelance graphic designer and writer

I know everyone likes him. He’s like the crowd darling or something. Trust me, I know someone’s advising him to manipulate that advantage. I know Kevin can sing….well, he would probably hold a crowd in total captivity IF he was in a karaoke. He’s really good.

But…….an idol??? Why does it remind me of that William Hung incident? That ‘accidental hero’ incident?

Anyway, this week, Melissa McGhee is booted out.

Might as well cause she was like a…..non-event. If compared to our local singers, Melissa would have kicked our local singers’ asses without a doubt. But unfortunately, she’s competing in the American Idol and the standards are so high it touches the sky!!! ( I know, sounds lyrical again? Hey, blame Bette Middler Albeit: lyrics to Wings Beneath My Wings).

But I am surprised that Kevin Covais is still in? He’s got the audience hooked, doesn’t he? I mean, I agree with Simon Cowell most of the time…more so now. I am a pretty good critic when it comes to singing and man, Kevin doesn’t have the whole THING. He’s lacking something…something.

If I had it my way, Covais would be booted out this week. Next Kellie Pickler. Too country…too Carrie Underwood wannabe. I saw the similarities. But I don’t think it should work. Singing and being an idol is about being original, being unique, being able to stand out, being King/Queen on stage. Your job, as a singer, is ALWAYS (I’ve learnt) to hold the audience CAPTIVE. I can’t see Kellie do that. She’s just too…..bland. ordinary. So…bimbo-ish.

Next up, Bucky Covington. Too unbending on his country image. So BBBBOOOORRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG…. If I wanted to see Bucky sing, I’ll go to a local karaoke, thank you very much.

I still like Katherine McPhee, Mandisa and Taylor Hicks.

Add one more….Chris Daughtry. After that Stevie Wonder night, he’s got me. This man’s got STYLE!!!!!! If nothing else….

I love the piano and have spent my childhood days dreaming about playing wondering music and composing songs. Because I have this gift musically, I didn’t speak to my parents for close to a week, I think, because they sold my organ off. I didn’t know then but now I do – my parents had financial problems and selling off the piano was an option I think they didn’t want to (but have to) make.

But I swear to you…I was the maddest kid on the block for a long, long, LONG time!!

So, off Joshua goes to music class. This is not the first time he’s going to attend music class. The first music class he went to was under Musikgarten program. I have very good reviews about Musikgarten but they teach a whole lot of singing, dancing and drama in the classes. So, after about a year of classes under Musikgarten, I suppose I decided that Joshua’s reaped enough benefits through their program. In attending the music class, he’s come out of his very solitary shell and has become more confident and vocal about things. Like when I shout at him unreasonably (bad PMS mom in action), he will sniff silently and tell me, “Mom, you shouldn’t just simply shout at me”. The first time he told me that, it stunned me silent. Then I ran to him and gave him a big hug, telling him, “You’re right, Josh. I shouldn’t. I am so, so, sorry!”

Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
www.creativejooz.com
www.allmomstuff.com

I was busy uploading some stuff into my client’s website and cursing at the snail-speed upload when my phone rang. Someone from the past…it’s been 7 years since we’ve promised each other that we will keep in touch. Apart from the splattering of 2-minute phone calls here and there, we’ve not kept our promises to each other.


One phone call and I am back revisiting my singing days. The days of being a singer is not as glamorous as some might think it is. I’d even call it ‘strenuous’ and ‘punishing’ too. The industry is unforgiving and demands a lot from you. If you decide to become and entertainer or singer or actress/actor…whatever, you’ll have to give nothing but everything. EVERYTHING. Every other aspect of your life as a ‘person’ has to take a backseat.  Everything else, apart from singing, comes to a deafening, grinding halt.


These Guys, Ji Yu Jin, were the guys that I around almost 24 hours a day. They were the people who became my world during my year-plus stint. Imagine, for that period of time, I saw nothing else, no one else and did nothing else but sing.


One friend’s comment surprised me about how little people know about being a singer. My friend commented, “Wow, it must be so easy earning that money, Marsha. I mean, you only have to work for 2 hours, three times a week. That’s easy money!”


But wait, what about waking up early in the morning for exercise (I don’t but some of the MEATIER group members had to do that) and then breakfast, practice, find new songs to sing, or compose a new ballad. What about spending time memorizing the lyrics, translating Chinese songs into English so that I (the banana in the group) can understand the song better and deliver appropriate expressions on stage. We have to go out for outfits, find matching ones, try out and buy them. We have find musical instruments or accessories that can help make our life on stage an easier one. And if you think there are no meetings as a singer, you’re way off mark!


The only difference between a singer/band’s meeting and the corporate world meeting is that the latter have their meetings when there’s sunshine, in a nice air-conditioned conference room and a large table. The former have their meetings right before sunup, in a dinghy little mamak stall (Indian Muslim stalls popular for selling their unique brand of breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything else in between) with a table so small you’re each fighting for space under the table.
I made some really great friends during those days…all of them as consumed with performing as I was. They all enjoyed performing and some of them just loved to be involved in something creative. And I miss them sorely. All of them.


The guys (Ji Yu Jin) are still going strong and have just released their fourth album about 4 months ago and I congratulate them and am so happy for them. Their journey has been long and hard. They fought for it, remained committed, did everything they could, quit smoking, exercised and lost a lot of weight (couldn’t even recognized them one time I met them at the mall!!) just to be in the game. They deserve everything they can get from the industry. The last I heard, they received a nomination for being the best Malaysian Band/Group. That was in 2003...and I have no idea if they took the award home or not.

The only reason why I am out of the game is because I just don’t think I want to give up the rest of my life chasing this….hobby. I love to sing and BOY, I love to hear applause and get a standing ovation. But I am not sure if I would want to give up everything just to enjoy that. I sing now and my kids STILL give me a standing ovation…but I guess it’s not the same thing. It never will.

Do I miss it? Yes, terribly. Will I do it again? Nope. I don’t want to have to argue with make-up artists AGAIN about putting a question mark above my right eyebrow (a Hong-Kong Sammi-Cheng fad thinghy I cannot understand and will not accept!), I don’t want people telling me that I have to change the way I walk and talk, speak Chinese when I want to speak English, be forced to dress in clothes made of less cloth than a cloth diaper…etc. I guess I WON’T do it again.

But like I told Joe, the band member who called me tonight, I will but only for a short period of time. I am not ready to give up EVERYTHING just for applause. I can still go to an open karaoke, whip up the mic and still get thunderous applause. Maybe that’s all I’m good for.

But I’m happy.

Marsha
www.marshamaung.com

I am no fan of Jessica Simpson…in fact, far far FAR from it. I don’t even like her wailing on the radio. I think her singing stinks and she looks more like man than a woman. Her cleavage, well….a side benefit of good genes, I guess. But what the heck…all this news about her calling her own younger sister, Ashlee Simpson, stupid has gotten out of hand.

Ashlee, 20, has been going out, getting drunk, caught snogging with other strangers and hanging ‘loose’ among Hollywood celebrities and celebrity-wannabes. And what is wrong with a sister chastising her own younger sister in front of her own mother? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

If I knew my own sister (pardon me, Karen) was partying like that, being flung around the bed so many times because stardom couldn’t keep her feet on the ground, I would call her stupid too! In front of many other people than just our mother. But the fact remains is that Jessica’s seen more (in the entertainment circle, at least) than Ashlee has and she deserves the chance to correct her own sister.

They may not see eye to eye…siblings sometimes do these kind of stupid things to each other….but the fact remains, we care about each other. This is a fact. We fight but we love each other. This is what family is all about. Isn’t it? I think so.

Jessica Simpson said, “"Mum, Ashlee is so stupid. She left the popcorn in the microwave and almost burned the house down."….and the way I see it, there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with saying that. so what? The popcorn in the oven? They burn? And when they do, the house may too? And sometimes we all call our siblings stupid. Like Karen is so stupid and Damien is so stupid. I won’t go as far as calling my own father or mother stupid but yeah….I think I can safely call my own siblings stupid….older or younger than me.

So what Jessica’s marriage to Nick Lachey is on the rocks. It’s got nothing to do with anything! The paparazzis’ got a way of worming things into things that aren’t there? I hope it doesn’t spoil their sisterly relationship just because Jessica called Ashlee stupid. Ashlee IS stupid for leaving the oven on with the popcorn in it. And she’s STUPID for fucking around with her own life. She’s stupid. If I were her, I would pull my socks up and start with apologizing to her elder sister, mother and the REST OF THE WORLD for being so F****D up!


And even though I think Jessica herself is a bitch and she can’t sing (she can scream, though) for nuts, she’s right in calling her younger sister stupid. Stupid can sometimes be a very kind and loving verb. Like….”I love that stupid woman”.

See?
Marsha
The stupid woman
http://www.marshamaung.com

Note : I am very big critic of singing and singers.

Ok, with that said, I feel free to express my personal opinion about Hong Kong singers. I don’t understand why the music industry in Hong Kong keeps promoting all those worthless signers who are nothing more than something good to look at. The current army of Hong singers are basically models or actors who think they can carry a tune and parade around on stage lip-synching instead of really sing. There’s a whole lot more to singing that meets the eye.

I am not saying I am the best singer on the planet. I can sing. But I am not the best, I have met some singers who totally bulldozed me over!

But I think if I were to stand and sing beside any one of those young Hong Kong singers today, I would bulldoze them over! I am a big fan of Moses Chan Ho (*snigger* Moses????) because he can really act and he’s really quite shy in person, but heck, why the hell does he think he can sing? In fact, I don’t think he’s the one who think he can sing. The record companies want to make a quick buck here and there on his popularity, therefore, package him up and make him sing a lullaby-like song that is so easy to sing that even a 2-year-old can sing without breaking a sweat.

During my time, when Mariah Carey sings, in 3 seconds, you’ll know it’s Mariah Carey. And if Whitney Houston was singing, you’d know it’s her voice. But tune in to MyFM and there are tons of Cantonese songs being aired and you don’t know one singer from the other.

There’s nothing wrong with the songs and the lyrics. I think some of the tunes are pretty good and the lyrics excellent and touching but the singing, those voices….are lost! I like Joey Yung but even her voice is lost among the mountain of fresh new ‘singing’ voices in the industry. and Kelly Chan? Urgh! She’s just a pretty face to look at and she can’t really sing for nuts.

Just in case you think I am aiming my machine guns are female singers, I think male singers suck too. Hacken Lee can sing. Lee Hom Wang can sing (and compose and play musical instruments to boost!). Andy Lau can sing so-so. Leon Lai can also sing so-so. The others make me cringe. I recently bought a Jay Chou CD because my niece was a big fan of his and I regret buying the CD because he can’t sing for nuts! If not for electronics coming into play, Jay Chou would be nothing more than bravado and good looks.

Look at Nnadia Chan Chung Ling. Now, she’s someone who knows how to control her voice, sing, have good diction, opens her mouth when she sings and have stage presence. But is she popular among the young? Nope. She is not. Do consumers appreciate her lovely voice? Nope. Just cause she’s over thirty. I think Sandy Lam can sing too…beautifully because her voice is crisp and enchanting. In my personal opinion, Denise Ho cannot sing for the life of her and I don’t know why the late Anita Mui took her in as an apprentice.

Judging from his antics, would you know that Dayo Wong actually has a degree in PHILOSOPHY?? But he does. He’s smart and extremely funny on screen but he’s not a singer. And yet he sings.

And oh my god, don’t even get me started on Cecelia Cheung Phak Chi. She’s known for her husky SPEAKING voice and sexy body. But what makes everyone think that ‘husky speaking voice’ equals ‘good singing voice’. They are two entirely different things!! i have never heard Cecelia Cheung sing until recently. All this while, I thought she was reasonably good, but after hearing her sing live AND on radio ONE TIME, I totally swear off her…no matter how good she looks on screen. She’s a screen siren…singer she is not!!! Not not not!! Someone just tell her she can’t sing so that she won’t torture some of us who prefers good singing to watching her parade on screen pretending she can sing, hoping she can sing, or trying to make herself belief she can sing.

But I guess the problem is not with the singers. If given a choice, some of them wouldn’t even sing. For example Moses Chan said that he didn’t think he could sing. Only when his management company encouraged him to TRY IT OUT, he did. Even so, he modestly said that he believes he’s not the singing type. True, true. Moses should stick to acting.

Instead, some of the better singers are not promoted, for example, Raymond Lam Fung (good voice control, excellent vibrato, promising voice range, can-be-improved diction), Kevin Cheng Ka Wing (no complaints!), and Myolie Wu Hung Yi (more training needed but shows very promising talents) should be promoted instead. They are the ones who can sing.

Instead, TWINS (can’t sing), SISTER (cant sing), SHE (can’t sing), COOKIES (can’t sing) are all promoted instead.

My posts are all very decent, nothing pornographic is allowed but heck, I just couldn't resist the headline...or title! Cause man oh man oh man, how can you resist the tempatation to write anything like that when you just found out that the name Inul Daratista means 'the girl with the breasts'. Well, not actually, cause Inul is her name...and Daratista (Dara means breasts)...well, goes without saying.....

I was curious about this young Indonesian singer who tried to hold a concert here in Malaysia some time back and asked my maid (live-in house helper) who she is. I mean, since Inul is such a sensation there (and the fact that her concert is banned here) prompted me to ask her who this gal is. And my maid say, "Oh my god, her dancing is like nothing else on this planet. Everyone in Indonesia thinks she is crazy!".

Aha. We're on to something here. I am thinking along the lines of Shakira or Mariah Carey...maybe Beyonce or something.

Then we finally found her VCD and I watched it with......'keen interest'. My husband stood there with his mouth open and my kids started 'jogetting' around gyrating their butts to the rhythm of the music. I am like "Eeek! Aaccckkk!! Ppphhhfffttttt!". For someone who's been around the 'gyrating disco' scene, I have to admit that my first impression about Inul sucked! I mean, this is porn disguised as music, man!!

And then I discovered that:-
1. She's appeared in the TIME magazine before (I mean, like wow!!)
2. She's never had a single recorded album out in the market...EVER!
3. She's only 24-years-old
4. That the kind of dancing and singing that she does is common where she was born and bred
5. She's been through hell just to hold her concerts
6. That each single concert zaps her energy like crazy
7. She used to earn $0.40 per concert (I am assuming USD$0.40)
8. Her concert in Malaysia and many other parts of the world has been banned

I now look at her, Inul Daratista, in a very different light!

I mean, she's pretty and although some people think she can't sing for nuts but in my personal opinion, if she didn't have to gyrate as much on stage, she might have a better chance to sing PROPERLY. But because she is known for her gyrating, NOT GYRATING is no longer an option!

To be frank, I really expected a more decent form of dangdut from her - nothing quite so extreme (at some points in the concert, she was shaking and shoving her rear end into the audience and you can imagine the kind of screaming and euphoria that was going on during the concert). But I say, let the girl do her stuff. Those who want to go and watch, go. Those who don't, stay home and watch your 'FRIENDS'.

You see...this is what I think....the more you tell the Indonesian people NOT to watch her show, the more Inul Daratista will try to get into shows. The more she tries, the more desperate (and some people call it 'curious') to watch it. Many high class elite people will just shake their heads and cluck their tongue when her picture is plastered over newspapers and magazines. They turn their heads and shoo their kids into their rooms when the TV is showing her performance. And then they sneak into their drivers' rooms and whisper to them..."Tomorrow, go get me a VCD on that Inul Daratista in concert, ok?"

I mean, what's the point. Let the girl sing and perform. And accordingly, there are hundreds, if not thousands of Inul Daratistas slam-dancing and bumping and grinding in the East Java province of the country. And what...you're going to stop ALL OF THEM??

The government should focus on how to keep Indonesia a safe and happy place instead and let Inul sing her song...and grind her butt in whatever fashion she wants.....

Judging from the kind of response that her fans have started up (gyrating and drilling, grinding in public places), the Government will be pretty helpful in their effort to snuff out the flame that Inul has started. Besides, let's compare her dangdut dancing to those performed by African tribes...not much difference there. And besides, they are also performing very sensual acts that they call DANCING. Didn't we all know that dancing is a very 'objective' thing?

A person could be flapping his arms around like a chicken and he could call it 'dancing' if he wants. If a person squats, stands, squats, stands...and if she thinks that dancing....by golly, that MUST be dancing too. So, you see, to Inul Daratista, dancing is gyrating her butt and grinding her rear end in cicles. Sure, it makes us blush (and some men wonder if they can get a bit of the action - or maybe get their wives to do that kind of bumping and grinding) but to Inul, it's dancing all the same, aint' it?

Here are some links you should look at:-
TIME magazine interview
Official Inul Daratista website
Common Dreams Newscenter
Coverage by Greatreporter.com
Devil Dancer

Sigh, gyrating off.....
Marsha

blog first published : Saturday, April 10th 2004

I just felt terrible as I watched the "American Idol" LIVE today on TV....I felt terrible for Camille Velasco as she got eliminated from the Finals...cruelly and heartlessly. Well, not heartlessly, I suppose cause she put herself there to begin with.

We didn't intentionally switched on the Tv to watch the show, really. Me and my husband were just channel-surfing (more like my husband unilaterally surfing the channels like I wasn't even there!) and we just bumped into the program. Sort of.

Anyway, we watched it and halfway through my husband switched to another channel to watch something else cause he thought that it was senseless for all the contestants to put themselves through such torture and mindless criticisms (albeit the Simon guy).

Then we bumped into the Guiness World records where there was this guy who set himself on fire for the longest time without help of Oxygen. Gee whiz, what it the human race really coming to? Are we really so insane to do those stupid things for recognition?

I said to my husband as he switched back to American idol where we watched Camille Velasco being eliminated. I said to him, "So, who's dumber, the man who set himself on fire or the singing contestants who were just singing to get some recognition"

Beats me,
:: marsha