Oh, I’m gonna take this opportunity also to thank tunehotels.com for sponsoring the rooms for my KL-based instructors to stay while in Kuching, and also to theweddingguide.com.my for sponsoring Stephanie Chai to emcee my Grand Opening ceremony.
No updates for a while because I’m still trying to breathe!
As the winner of the Best Entertainment Blog at Nuffnang’s Asia-Pacific Blog Awards…
… it’s a crime I’m not able to update this blog for so long.
Thanks for all the support you guys have given me. Imma get back to this blog as soon as the running of Level Up Fitness gets a level up. 🙂
So this is what I have been working very hard on over the past several months.
It’s still not 100% completed, and I’m losing a lot of sleep over it because we’re supposed to open in exactly two weeks from now and there still seems like a lot to be done.
In any case, if you are in Kuching right now, then please head over to my roadshow at The Spring from today till this Sunday.
I’m also planning a special preview session for Kuching bloggers on Sunday next week, so if you wanna take a sneak peak of my place before it officially opens to the public, just drop me a mail at im@kennysia.com and I’ll add ya to my invite list.
Pardon the short blog entry.
One of these days, I’m gonna tell the story about how a comment from a blog reader eventually led me on a crusade to create from scratch – the largest fitness centre in Kuching city.
Meanwhile, I gotta hit the sack to catch 2 hours of nap before I turn up to my own roadshow a complete zombie.
Whoever it was that nominated me for the Asia-Pacific Blog Awards, thank you!
kennysia.com was accepted as one of the finalists for the prestigious awards to be held in two weeks time in Singapore.
With that, this blog now joins such luminaries as Budiey (MY), BeautifulNara (MY), CowboyCaleb (SG) and Girl With A Satchel (AU) in the running for Best Entertainment Blog; together with BeautifulNara (again), Down To Earth (AU), Jehzeel Laurente (PH) and Xiaxue (SG) for Most Influential Blog.
The casting of votes officially closed yesterday, so actually, it’s a bit too late to ask you to vote for kennysia.com. I didn’t mean to post this late deliberately. By right, this entry should have been up many weeks ago.
But it was not.
By right, I probably should also have been more pro-active in campaigning, as many other nominees had, hanging my face on the wall, going around pushing people to vote for me and stuff.
But I did not.
By right, I also should have titled this post “Krrunching My Away To Uniquely Singapore”, as a way to appease the two sponsors for the event, Pringles potato chips and the Singapore Tourism Board, without which this awards would never have happened.
But I shall not.
Was it because I don’t care about the awards? No, of course I do.
Anyone can smack together some HTML code and call it a “so-and-so” awards show. But it takes an agency like Nuffnang with 5 branches in 4 countries to be able to organize one that has some level of pedigree associated with it.
Was it because I do not want to win? Heck no, of course I would love to. Throughout my 5 years blogging, kennysia.com had never won any blog awards, except for one.
It was 5 years ago when Project Petaling Street was the de facto blogging community of Malaysia. kennysia.com won the Blog of the Year after some nomination and voting by peers. That was the only time PPS held an award before it was taken over by some religious nutcase.
My “trophy” was a T-shirt, which I never worn, but instead kept in my cupboard till this day.
So yes, I am over the top over being selected as a finalist. However, I did not campaign, nor did I do anything to appease the sponsors.
Instead I decided to do away with the glitz, the glamour and even the hint of commercialism that’s associated with the blog awards, so that I can write this entry, straight up from the heart.
And I want to say with all sincerity – thank you.
I know my nomination, in particular, for the Most Influential Blog was frowned upon by some other bloggers. Some figured since I have enjoyed my share of the limelight, the lesser-known blogs were not given a chance to shine.
The fact of the matter is – I never claim myself to be the “top blogger” nor the “most influential blogger” in Malaysia, let alone Asia Pacific.
The “top blogger” in Malaysia is ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir. The “most influential blogger” in Malaysia is perhaps ex-ISA detainee Raja Petra. Kenny Sia is nothing close to being as influential as those two.
Of course, those are controversial socio-political bloggers. In the category of personal or lifestyle blog, yeah, while I do enjoy some success both in terms of popularity and commercially, it does not mean that I do not help propell relatively unknown blogs into prominence.
That was one of the reasons I created “Short Talk”. That’s the small subsection of text you see above before my normal blog entry. The reason behind its creation is so that I can promote other bloggers in my “Blog Plug of the Day”, or charities in my “Karma Point Collection” or just link to anything I find interesting on the web.
For the sake of creating a healthy blogging community, I think it’s important that we keep linking to each other.
It’s important that bloggers with high traffic do their part in promoting good-quality lesser-known bloggers, even when they are not obligated to. Popular bloggers become popular only because they were supported by others in the blogging community back in their heydays. Now that they have enjoyed success, I reckon it is only right to give back to the community.
In any case, while the top-most influential blogger ain’t me, I’d like to think that at least I have played my part in promoting a healthy blogging community and a positive blogging culture within Malaysia.
As I spend less time on blogging and more time concentrating on running my new business, that’s the kinda impact I hope I had left in the Malaysian blogging community. 🙂
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Because I’ve been too busy to blog a proper entry, I’m gonna leave you with two more of my episodes from Jojo Struys’s Project Alpha.
This episode, I shared with Jojo about the people that inspire me.
I spoke about my so-called love life (or rather, the lack thereof).
Everyone, meet Ericka.
They said the cameras put an extra 10 pounds on a person.
I think that’s a lie.
Why do I look like I’m 500 kg heavy on TV?!
Despite my heavy frame, I’d like to believe that I live a pretty healthy lifestyle.
Not saying that I’m a major health freak lah, but generally I watch my diet, don’t do drugs, never smoked a cigarette in my entire life and take part in sports regularly.
One crazy thing I do is that I wanna complete a 42km marathon every year in a different city. It started three years ago at the KL International Marathon.
Continued running the following year at the Penang Bridge Marathon.
Last year I competed in the Singapore International Marathon.
42km is no small distance. Whenever I tell people that’s the distance I run, the reaction I typically get is a loud “WHAT! FORTY-TWO KILOMETRES!?” and then followed by one of the following remarks.
a) “You crazy ah!?”
b) “Possible meh!?”
c) “Want to die, you know got easier way one right!?”
Running 42km continuously may sound like an impossible feat for a lotta people. But like many things in life, nothing is impossible if you’ve got the discipline. In this case, the discipline required is to train regularly for the 3 months leading up to the event. No slack.
I needed something to work towards so that I can be motivated into exercising regularly and staying healthy. Else, I’ll just be sitting on my lazy ass in front of the computer 16 hours a day.
The reason I do this is because I know it pays to stay healthy. Just like that PRUhealth ad, “rewards you for being healthy, covers you when you’re not”
The problem, however, is that it’s NOT always easy to stay healthy even if I wanna.
My next 42km marathon race is actually happening this coming Sunday. But thanks to illegal fire burning in Indonesia, this is what Kuching city looks like for the past 3 months.
Badly polluted and heavily enveloped in haze.
And if it’s not covered in haze, then it’s like this.
Raining like we’re living in Waterworld.
Because of those reasons, the amount of time I spent training for my marathon is ZERO. And how the hell am I supposed to run 42km with no training without dying? I have no idea.
So, it’s not that I don’t wanna stay healthy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.
The haze in Kuching was terrible. It was so bad…
…even the Kuching cat statue had to wear a mask. FML.
No, I was not going crazy.
I was only trying to enter 7-Eleven’s Slurpeelicious Moments contest.
The instructions ask for me to camwhore with a Slurpee, then uploading the picture onto the Slurpeelicious Moments site. Winners are judged based on creativity of facial expression, which is why I was making sure my best orgasmic face was put forth in front of camera.
With the first prize being RM6,000, you can get me to do anything.
The trouble is, those Slurpees are damn freezing cold. And I was trying a bit too hard.
After a while, I ended up like this.
… Help?
This entry marks the finale on my Copenhagen experience.
But before that, a quick recap about what Tiger Translate is all about, and why the heck I was in Copenhagen for.
You see, a lot of alcohol brands often do tie-ups with big name concerts or dance fests when it comes to connecting with the public. Arthur’s Day, Green Room and Artistry, just to name a few.
At a time when everyone else is supporting music, Tiger Beer came up with a different strategy altogether.
Everyone is doing music, but no one is doing something about art. So Tiger stepped in and did something about it.
Through a series of art contest held throughout the year, they uncovered a handful of young, unknown and talented painters, illustrators and graffiti artists from all around Asia.
For these Asian artists, Tiger Translate is like the arts version of Idol.
Through these contests, they found a platform to promote their work to the general public. The next step is to invite well-established experts from the Western world to come in and collaborate with these Asian artists.
The end result: an “East Meets West” cultural exchange that translates through their paint brushes onto the canvas.
This what Tiger Translate is all about. Last year, they had it in London and this year they do it all over again in Copenhagen – the capital of Denmark and the site of this year’s Tiger Translate Global Showcase.
On the 19th August, I travelled with 5 artists from Singapore, Thailand, Mongolia and China all the way to Copenhagen.
On day one, we went straight into the studio. The artists from Asia and the artists from Denmark were introduced to each other.
Right from the start, creative sparks were flying when the artists from both continents presented their portfolios. Language was no barrier and the more experienced Danish artists were keen to share with the young Asian artists what they know.
Within a couple of hours, I spotted them working on their canvases already. After all. they had an arts exhibition ready to present to the world in exactly three day’s time.
The only time those artists had a break were during the night-time when we followed the Tiger Beer crew to tour the nightspots of Copenhagen. That was when we had our hilarious incident with the Mongolians, who mistakenly thought the Singaporean version of “cheers!” was “SAMEEEEE!”
My job in Copenhagen was slightly easier. While the Asian and Danish artists were hard at work in the studio, I had a chance to molest the Little Mermaid tour the Danish capital’s most famous attractions.
As I said in my Travel Guide to Copenhagen, the best thing about Copenhagen isn’t any of those places you have to pay admission for, but inside a pub or restaurant where you can share jokes and have a mindless chat with the locals over food and drinks.
But after three solid days of collaboration, it was time for the Asian and Danish artists to put down their paintbrushes and prepare for the Tiger Translate Global Showcase.
The venue of the arts exhibition is Pakhus 11, an abandoned power station a stone’s throw away from world famous Little Mermaid statue.
The crew setting up the place was just as hardworking as the artists. I was there a couple of hours before they opened doors, and I was amazed how they managed to turn a barren building into an arts exhibition / concert hall.
For the young Asian artists, this was the first arts exhibition they had ever done in their career. A lot of them were understandably nervous, putting finishing touches to their art pieces in the final minutes.
It was only when the doors were opened, the music turned up and beer bottles opened that the mood began to lighten up.
Compared to the London crowd last year, the bunch of people attracted to Tiger Translate Copenhagen was considerably more sophisticated. I’ve always heard that Danish people are design-conscious, well-dressed and incredibly sexy. That night, I witnessed that yes, it’s all true.
The chicks especially – damn, they’re sizzling.
The only problem is that they’re all too tall for me. FML.
There were a bunch of things ha
ppening simultaneously at Pakhus 11 throughout the night.
In one area, the DJ gets the crowd going on the dance floor.
In another area, the artists demonstrated their paintbrush prowess in front of an live audience.
And then there’s a corner where people can paint on little canvas tiles and hang them on the wall. Everybody can contribute.
Everybody, even if you hate your wife because you are boring.
The theme for this year’s Tiger Translate is ‘Change’. Here are some of my favourite displays.
The Garbage Bin by Danish street artist Clean and Chinese comic artist Song Yang.
A garbage bin fusing Eastern style clouds with Western style graffiti. I’d love to that outside my house.
“The Pass-It-On Painting”, depicting the fall of society values, and the irony that peace and harmony these days are achieved through violence, chaos and aggression.
This 8-metre long canvas was passed on from one artist to the next, which is why it felt kinda weird. From left to right are works by Danish illustrator Miss Lotion, Singaporean street artist Antz, Danish street artist Hrvrk and Chinese comic artist Song Yang.
The art on display are not just limited to those done with paintbrushes.
“My Chair Is Scared” is by Danish installation art collective Le Fix.
They built this art piece out of junks, to tell a story of a living room chair that becomes scared after watching all the negative news on television. The moral of the story: get yo ass out to see the world, man!
Interactive Change by Thai multimedia artist Rom.
This piece of work is simply too unique to describe with words! The guy attached a Nintendo Wii controller to a paint brush. Projected on the screen are pictures of the present world.
Wave the paint brush across it, and images of a futuristic world are gradually revealed. Too cool!
But without a doubt, the two artists who stole the show in Copenhagen are Liv, a Danish photographer and Ulzii, a painter from Mongolia. Right from the start, everyone noticed the incredible amount of chemistry between those two individuals from drastically different backgrounds.
One is a 30-something heavily-tattooed single mother. The other is a 23-year-old student who speaks very limited English.
In one instance, Liv stripped and allow Ulzii to paint Mongolian alphabets over her naked body.
In another instance, she brought him to his church and they laid down on her brother’s grave, forming the symbol of Ying-Yang.
It was so provocative, so intense, yet surprisingly poetic.
This was how Liv described her unusual collaboration with her soul mate.
Three days working together, and she found her soulmate. Sometimes I wish I could understand how artists think.
(Any artists reading this entry, please critique and comment?)
There’s one last thing I really wanna share here though. There was this one blank wall in the studio.
Throughout the whole three days, each individual artist painted their creations onto this wall. One painting over another. Continuously changing the picture on the wall from one to the other.
A video camera recorded the whole process. This was played back during the Tiger Translate Global Showcase in front of a live audience and everyone was completely blown away.
Well, what can I say?
When they said the theme for this Tiger Translate was “Change”, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t quite what they expected. 😉
