World Pillow Fight Day at 1Utama -3 April 2010

Over 70 cities around the world participating-  http://www.pillowfightday.com/

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New Gathering Point: Outside, Lower Ground, entrance of New Wing 1Utama, near Subway/Cold Storage.

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Some of the things you will want to know:

1. The location of this event’s Gathering Point will only be revealed days before the fight. Don’t ask where the Fight Point will be, we won’t tell. We never tell. You just find out when the time is right. At the last minute, that is.
2. Gathering Point and Fight Point are two separate locations.
3. Pillow Fight Police (PFP) will be at the Gathering Point to welcome you and escort you to Fight Point.
4. PFP will stand out, it will be easy to spot them. If you can’t spot them, you shouldn’t be near a pillow.
5. Bring your own weapon of choice. We will be selling pillows on that day just in case. If all the pillows get sold out, then you won’t have a weapon.
6. Only Pillow Fight with someone who has a pillow. Do not hit the official photographers.
7. Always be cool, we are not there to cause trouble or nuisance.
8. There will be official photographers and videographers, and photos will be uploaded and available for all. In short, this is a Pillow Fight, not a photography competition. Fight, not click!
9. Show your love to us by purchasing our t-shirts. Not all of our projects have sponsors. Buying our t-shirts help us in funding our projects. More importantly, participate! Join in!
10. Most of all make sure you have fun!

This event is also on Facebook. Click here.

#KLPillowFight on Twitter

twitter.com/@RandomAlphabets

The Game Plan

4.00pm : Pillow Fighters come to the Gathering Point (the location for this will be announced online on 31 March)

4.30pm : Pillow Fighters will be escorted by the Pillow Fight Police to the Fight Point.

4.55pm : Both teams in position…time for battle…

Here’s last year’s gig. Watch it to get the idea if you haven’t got a clue.

Corntoz Pillow Fight Kuala Lumpur from RandomAlphabets on Vimeo. Music by Butterfingers.

Video and photos from Corntoz Pillow Fight, Kuala Lumpur!

Thank you!

To view all the photos, click Gallery. There’s a writeup in the papers, 8 April. There are two videos. One by RA, one by The Star Newspaper. Scroll down to watch them.

To view the post that promoted this event prior to 4 April 2009, click here. If you would like to be notified for our next project, join the R A group on Facebook. No spam.

RA avoid asking for donations to support its operations and costs. If you’d like to see more of our initiatives, contribute by purchasing our t-shirts, and of course participating in our projects. :)

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*New t-shirt design coming soon. Place your order, just email, no deposit.

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Thank you to the organising team (names below, scroll down).  Germ from French For Incredible for his artwork, Yani Mustapa & Jazmi Kamarudin from Cineleisure Damansara, Diyana Shahrum, Joseph Dhevan & Pierre Pang from Corntoz, and of course to all Pillow Fighters who participated and made it a blast!

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Corntoz Pillow Fight Kuala Lumpur from RandomAlphabets on Vimeo. Music by Butterfingers.

The video we made

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The video by The Star

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Photography team were made of :

• Haikal Shaharuddin
• Hariz Kamal
• Khalil Makata
• Chin Ren Yi
• Dhuha Johari
• Zulhelmi Misran
• Syamim Sharum

Videographers were :

• Khairah Makata
• Juria Toramae
• Ian Kirk

Pillow Fight Police :

• Juliana Tang
• Neena Sufian
• Amelia Anuar
• Sarah Fathallah
• Chris Tock
• Akhmal Wahab
• Liyana Ferdaus
• Khad Lubis
• Amin Abdul Rahman
• Eryl Erlyna
• Zaza Fathy
• Jennie Yang
• Nina Alyani
• Athirah Naim
• Munir Shah
• Nawar
• Maria Ghani
• Salini Zaini

Other team members :

• Hashim Abdullah
• Firdus Ahmad
• Niki Cheong
• Hassan Ali
• Nasir Ahmad

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Corntoz Pillow Fight – Gathering Point revealed!

*This event has passed. Click here to have a look at the video and pictures taken on 4 April 2009.

There are over 75 cities around the world participating-  http://www.pillowfightday.com/

Scroll down to find out the secret location of the Gathering Point!

Things you must know :

1. The location of the Pillow Fight Point, will only be revealed at the Gathering Point.
2. The Pillow Fight Point, will not be at the Gathering Point. It will be a different place altogether. They are two different places.
3. The Pillow Fight Police, will be clearly marked and you will know them, when you see them.
4. Members of the Blue team, and the White team, will be distinctive and clearly marked as well. The Pillow Fight Police will help you with this, on the day itself.
5. Bring your own pillow.
6. Do not carry them around. Keep it in a bag, until it is time to ‘Pillow Fight’.
7. Only ‘Pillow Fight’ with someone who has a pillow.
8. Keep your cameras and spectacles safe. There will be a team of official photographers, and photo will be uploaded and available for all.
9. Have fun!

Avoid wearing shoes as you will have to take it off. No footwear allowed during Pillow Fight. Bring a carrier bag to keep it if you like.

This event, is also on Facebook. Click here.

Watch the video below :)

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Corntoz Pillow Fight 4 April 2009 from RandomAlphabets on Vimeo.
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The Game Plan

4.00pm : Pillow Fighters come to the Gathering Point

4.20pm : Pillow Fighters will be split into two groups. White and Blue. The appointed Pillow Fight Police, will help with the split.

4.25pm : One team will go first to the Pillow Fight Point, escorted by the Pillow Fight Police.

4.30pm : Second team will go to the Pillow Fight Point, escorted by the Pillow Fight Police.

4.45pm : Both teams in position…

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Gathering Point revealed! It is not at Cineleisure

Watch the video below to find out.

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Music by Butterfingers ‘Chemistry’. Artwork by Germ. Video by Zain HD.

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Corntoz Pillow Fight Laws of War.

1. Only Pillow Fight with someone who has a pillow.
2. Swing lightly.
3. We are not there cause trouble or be a nuisance.
4. We are only there to gather, before going to the Pillow Fight Point.
5. While waiting, feel free to support the economy via the shops around you.
6. Don’t worry, you won’t get left behind.
7. Unless you’re fashionably punctual and it’s always the traffic, never you.
8. Finally, don’t kancheong spider (get overly excited, menggelabah).
9. Just wait for the cue to split teams to rock and roll.

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Social acknowledge part 1

If something awkward, or not awkward happens, don’t pretend it didn’t. Address it, acknowledge it. I have a problem with people who don’t. I have a problem with people who do otherwise.

When somebody walks towards you from the opposite direction, and there’s eye contact (even if it’s accidental), acknowledge the other person’s presence. Don’t pretend you didn’t see the person there. You know it. He or she knows it. Say hello, give a smile, raise a brow. Is it that difficult? Is your nose far up airborne that you can’t level your ego to a stranger for a brief moment.

You have the intelligence to read this text, possibly even have a decent education that you are somewhat proud of, take pride in, and tell people about from time to time at some point in your life, but you can’t afford basic social intelligence?

Given, that the other person is/might be doing the same thing.

But change will not happen on negative assumptions or passive approaches. Before you save the world, eradicate hardcore poverty, preach for greener pastures or change the government, go for something immediate and frequent. Baby steps.

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Shave for leukemia

The boy on my right, is Ashaari Rahmat. On my left, Afiq. Note Afiq’s hair.

Last week Afiq messaged me about him participating in the World’s Greatest Shave in support for the Leukemia Foundation. His hair, horribly long if you ask me, is two and a half years old. This is indeed two blessings in a shave. By doing so, Afiq is also raising funds for the cause. Click here to learn more about the project and how to donate.

He also created a Facebook Event page for this. Even if you can’t actually attend, by clicking Attending, you will help generate awareness for such a cause. He can be contacted at afiqrahmat [at] gmail [dot] com

One commendable thought that crossed me was that, it’s a project/cause started by Australians for Australians. This Malaysian boy studying in Melbourne decided to take part and invested quite a sum of effort to contribute.

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On the ship on the night we had to dress up. Simba here did it effortlessly.

Review of breaking and lagi lah

For the past week, RA has been talking about a few plays. 2 of which had its last show on Sunday afternoon. I caught Break-ing on Thursday with theatre analyst Niki. On Sunday, to Lagi Lah with Jennie, Nawar and Linda.

Yes. All these people have only names and you’ll find no pictures of them, or me, here. Only an idiot would make himself look bad in his own column.

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Three plays by three directors

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I’ve to admit I didn’t quite get Silence, Please, by Jo Kukathas. The storyline that is. I got the gist of it. Certain parts what the story evolved around, showed the maturity (I suppose that’s the word) of the writer. The sub-messages as well was brilliant. As a matter of taste, it was a little slow for me and it did make me feel lost watching this as I had to keep on trying to piece it together in my head.

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Directed by Loh Kok Man, Repot?[Mind+Mine] was a play that had 95% of the script in Mandarin (or was it Cantonese). With subtitles of course. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. There was defintely an almost equillibrium between the element of humour and message/theme. One of the things it seeked to determine and pose to the audience was, what is the national language, first language and mother tongue of a person. A conundrum namely with non-Malays who live in Malaysia.

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The last one, WIP did good but prolonged pauses turned me off a little. On top of the idea of promoting the freedom of thought, it also made close reference to the ISA which I’ve been researching about of late. This one was directed by Nam Ron and I was waiting for that X element from him in this one because of his previous work. Just as when I was beginning to feel disappointed, that element came in towards the end of the play. And it came well.

*Part 2 of the ISA series that I’m writing for RA will be out this coming Monday.

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I’ve always insisted on not saying things like, ‘for Malaysian standards, this was good.’ But that is indeed the case sometimes. That description is apt no matter how politically correct you wish to appear. Worse still if you grew up hearing and watching West End musicals and then you start watching local productions that is at most, considered to be post infant or perhaps pre adolescence.

What this one did was that, it would take a song from a famous musical or movie, alter the lyrics and theme to suit the Malaysian context. It did not help that my ears could not catch on as fast as Jennie’s in spotting the origins of half of the parodies they were doing.

But to break it down simply, at least 60% of the songs performed was brilliant. Definitely.

Some were off simply I believe because of two things. Some songs needed more,

• movement and/or people on stage. This was especially so with the somewhat barren stage they had. To compensate with more props and decor would be an alternative, but an expensive one indeed as the context (although all Malaysian), was a revolving one.
• singing by more people. Not just the one or three that they had on stage. But perhaps the whole cast if need be, for the sake of ‘delivering’ the song. Some just needed that grand effect with stronger melody.

That said, the parody of Tomorrow (from Annie The Musical) regarding how a Dato’ Hu must wait till ‘tomorrow’ for his cheque, perfomed solo by Mia Palencia was simply super.

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Martin khor’s climate trade import duties

Thus making them, collectively achieving a pseudo critical analytical consensus derived from a council that merely groped the elephant in the dark. Separately declaring the trunk, tusk, tail, torso as the negative, blindly thinking it all as one and the same thing.

*This post was originally written on Tuesday 27th August. Part of this post was published on RA 7 days ago with the title ‘Elephant Analysis’.

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Last Monday over breakfast I read a rather simple yet good (to my lowly standards) piece written by Martin Khor. No. Not Michael Kors. Khor is an economist and Director of the Third World Network. He has been critical regarding the negative effects of globalisation for third world countries. Excerpt from ‘Climate to be used for trade protection’,

He (Sarkozy) indicated that when France takes over the presidency of the European Union (it did so in July), he would advocate the use of higher duties on imports that contain higher carbon content.

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This can be taken to mean that if the amount of carbon dioxide emissions exceeds a certain level in producing one unit of a product, then extra duties may be placed on that product, thus raising its cost and discouraging imports.

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Developing countries, consider this unfair. Firstly, developed countries have historically been responsible for much of the carbon dioxide that has built up in the atmosphere, giving rise to global warming. There were then no punitive measures against their high emission-products.

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Secondly, they have superior technology and can produce goods with lower carbon content than developing countries and thirdly, they have so far refused to transfer these technologies to developing countries at affordable prices.

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The use of trade measures is thus unfair to developing countries. They are also against the spirit and principle of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which mandate that developed countries must finance the costs of actions dealing with climate change in developing countries and that discriminatory trade measures should not be taken.

A few things you can note from the piece above.

Capitalism, democracy, globalisation or a combination of either could in fact makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. While I agree that (the overrated) democracy is the best system we have available, that does not make it great. The excerpt above is a reflection of one of the many loopholes that democracy offers.

In fact, present day no country has adopted the doctrine of democracy wholly a 100%.

Being in the generation that went to school in the post-cold war era being told that democracy is great, and communism is shite (without ever being told what either of them actually works or stand for), I’ve come to note that due to peer pressure most have a tendency to want to appear to be politically correct and politically conscious. Thus making them, collectively achieving a pseudo critical analytical consensus derived from a council that merely groped the elephant in the dark. Separately declaring the trunk, tusk, tail, torso as the negative, blindly thinking it all as one and the same thing.

Going back to the article, I suppose to some extent, this is somewhat in congruent with Marx’s view that capitalism breeds war. If we share the same foresight, that is.

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*The writer is not an economist, nor a graduate in economics. Or political science. His view is, the elephant tastes like chicken.

Elephant analysis

Few weeks ago I read an article by Martin Khor. I took an excerpt of it & wrote something which was ready to be published here.

Because all the slots on RA were ‘booked’ by other writers, I uploaded part of that post on FB Notes. To my surprise, it generated unexpected attention & comments. Or perhaps that’s just how Notes work & I’m ‘uncharacteristically’ oblivious.I’ll share the original content of that original post here some other time. Meanwhile I’ll publish here what I did on Notes.

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The Note, titled Quasi critics and analysts, read,

“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
-Soren Kierkegaard

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Being in the generation that went to school in the post-cold war era being told that democracy is great, and communism is shite (without ever being told what either of them actually works or stand for), I’ve come to note that due to peer pressure most have a tendency to want to appear to be politically correct, conscious and active.

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Thus making them, collectively achieving a pseudo critical analytical consensus derived from a council that merely groped the elephant in the dark. Separately declaring the trunk, tusk, tail and torso as the negative, blindly thinking it all as one and the same thing.

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The first comment came from MM. “And what prompted this, Zain?“

The ‘note’ above is actually an excerpt from a (soon to be published) post I wrote for RandomAlphabets.com, regarding Martin Khor’s article.

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It’s meant primarily for those with a few pebbles and an empty tin can that have exhausted my ears, and my (so far) patient listening skills.

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I suppose it would be splendid to hear more constructive criticism towards anything and everything.

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On the democracy/communism note, I do feel like a significant amount of my peers point, relentlessly, at pointless things. It would be more respectable, to themselves and their thoughts, if they could seek to understand, rather than have their enthusiasm transmitted aimlessly.

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Young hearts, run free.
In mind, not stupidity.

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