Hard Rock Hotel Penang Launch!

Archive for September, 2009

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Interior!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Alrightey! Like I promised in this entry , the 2nd part of my Hard Rock Hotel Penang coverage is now here! In that entry, I only blogged about the exterior of this prestigious rock n’ roll hotel.

So gentlemen (and ladies) ignite your Harley Davidson superbike engines and brace yourself for the interior & the grand entrance of Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe Penang.

The superbike display in the Grand Ballroom

Upon driving around the vicinity located in Batu Fehringgi, Penang, it’s hard not to notice the elongated building of Hard Rock Hotel – which, in my opinion, reminds me of a piano keyboard.

A panorama of the keyboard-looking hotel
heh

Upon taking a closer look upfront, the huge iconic Hard Rock guitar stands prominently in the center of attraction. A pretty good tourist photo spot and perfect for those who fancies pretty backgrounds to camwhore in.

One of the first few people to ecstatically grab a photo with it would obviously be this person below. I don’t know her – do you?

Take a closer look at the guitar statue btw!

Bearing the words of Hard Rock Hotel,
this franchise has already built a brand of its own

Fancy one of the boys from the classic rock n roll band the Beatles, greeting you upon your grand arrival. Which band member is this by the way? I tried Googling him but all of them look the same to me wtf. Someone help!

Hence the caption
^_^

So yeah, when your standing right there admiring the bronze statue of all 4 members of the Beatles, something else will be flashing above you in a myriad of colors! Check out their crystal chandelier which changes colors every 10 seconds or so..

Made it into an animation so you catch my drift

Pretty right? I stood there for 5 whole minutes just watching the chromatic beauty of these colors flowing down from their respective crystal ‘pixels’ right to the bottom to what everyone was admiring at the lobby.

Elisa Saw, the Communications Manager & I
Thanks fo the invite!

I especially liked the lobby. They had 100% authentic music oriented merchandise/costumes on a glass display all around. Some from Elton John, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and the list goes on! Some even from those artistes dating all the waaaaay back to my parents’ era!

<3 the acoustic guitar & rugged green top

and the electric guitar!

Remember in that previous entry about Hard Rock Hotel Penang, I mentioned that the staff greeted all the guests by saying “How May I Rock Your World Today?” instead of the conventional “How May I Help You, Sir?”

So, it’s not surprising if their room check-in counter is actually a bar!

… and bartenders flarring!
(with their mouths wide open)

Unfortunately though, it was full occupancy that entire week, so they couldn’t bring me up to capture the rooms and the suites. Not even a single empty room available for me to shoot! Which is unless, I settle with unkempt bedsheets and clothes (prolly lingerie wtf) strewn all over the room.

By the elevator

So that was the closest I ever got to the rooms. Just outside the elevator. But don’t worry. I’ll be back soon for a stay there!

Just beside the lobby was Starz Diner. It’s an all day dining restaurant featuring Asian and International Cuisine. It’s 1 of the 5 Food & Beverage outlets of Hard Rock Hotel Penang.

My favorite beyond favorite part of Starz Diner was this :

Their doorknob!
It’s that guitar again

Anyhoozers, the next thing I did was to explore the Grand Ballroom. I liked how the entire building’s exterior walls were made of glass. Totally reminds me of a greenhouse!

Beautiful.

So beautiful that I just had to camwhore with it

But of ALL moments,
I was shot adjusting my hair LOL

My two cents tells me that this hotel is the perfect place to hold your wedding – especially if you’re a rock fan woo hoo! \m/

ANYWAY
I love how Hard Rock Hotel can be so creative, bold and out from the norms of any other hotel you see out there.

wedding cake!

This is the main table, right below the stage. It was the most elaborately decorated, with the banquet chairs all adorably tied in a bow with the aforementioned iconic guitar pinned to it

and the percussion set right smack in the center of this table!

That’s where mom & dad should sit!
And the rest of your immediate family

another mini guitar on the guests’ table!
Such an adorable thing!

Ohmy. I sound so excited *deep breath*

Up on the podium/stage, there’s this rostrum which has a guitar on it too! I can almost imagine the pastor/emcee/some-person-whom-my-husband-and-I-hired standing there to give a toast at my wedding! And mom will prolly cry on stage too while making the speech yadda yadda…and… ohmy I think my thoughts spoke too loud.

How may I rock your world today?
\m/.

I soon exited the Grand Ballroom & decided to head to the infamous Hard Rock Cafe. So far, I’ve only been to HRC KL and HRC Singapore. But in my wardrobe lies HRC tees and memorabilla from Texas and New York!

Yes Ima fan of Hard Rock Cafe.
Sue me.

Randomly, Harley Davidson superbikes has huge side mirrors

I made my way out of Hard Rock Hotel to enter the adjacent Hard Rock Cafe. Guess who I ‘met’ before walking into the cafe?

A white statue.
No it’s not Abrham Lincoln
nor is it Napoleon Bonaparte

It’s none other than the King of Pop!

Michael Jackson
of white gloves & thriller dances

Honestly, don’t ask me what the King of Pop is doing sitting so comfortably at the entrance of a ROCK & ROLL themed hotel. Strange right? Hmmm.. mebbe he’s just a music icon that goes with the flow of all genres no matter what. Heh.

I’d like to see Whacko Jacko at a Jazz festival wtf.

Ta-da!

For those of you who have hit Hard Rock Cafe anywhere in the world at all, it’s basically the same rockawesome thing.

Spot Elvis Presley guys!
Do you see him?
(and is that Oprah beside him wtf)

Did I mention that I absolutely adore the mushroom soup in Hard Rock Cafe? Yuppers – never missed it whenever I go there.

Finally, love the Hard Rock tank top! In my favorite colour and design too. Thanks! I had a wonderful time venturing the hotel.

And so should you
*grins*

Posted in Adverts/Reviews, Art, Current Affairs/Malaysia, Events, Media Affairs, Openings/Launches, Photography, Travels/Holidays | 24 Comments »

Arthur’s Day @ Sunway | Black Eyed Peas

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

The full coverage is here! What dya think could be the cause of the massive gridlock at almost all the highways heading towards Bandar Sunway? Apart from it being the Monash Ball at MOS Euphoria, there was an even greater celebration not too far away.

Yup, ma party people.
Put your hands right up where I can see ‘em &
give a loud toast to Arthur Guinness.

For those who ain’t stout drinkers or have completely no idea what Arthur’s Day is about, it is a series of music events which have been organised to celebrate the 250 remarkable years of the Guiness Brewing Company. It will be held in Dublin, New York and yes.. us right here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

Honoured yet?

When I arrived, lotsa people were already crowding both the main and the VIP entrance. Let’s prove to Arthur that we know how to party as well. Hmmm.. as Malaysians would say, semangat lah!

The mo I got inside, I was in awe. Like, whoaaaaaa man. How long did the crew take to set this up! Amayzeeeeeng or whaddd?

Brilliant stage work

I walked around all over around the Arthur’s Lounge as well as the main zones of the Sunway Surf Beach area to shoot some piccies of the venue & merchandise on sale. But omfgwtfbbq the merchandise were friggin’ pricy!

Pretty though!

On stage at that mo was Reshmonu, our local singer-songwriter who did his R&B thang. Sorry to say though, I found that performance kinda boring. Next up was Joe Flizzow, Malaysia’s International Hip Hop Ambassador, otherwise known as ‘The President’. (LOL a lil narcissictic right)

Oops sorry one photo of their performance only cos
I was too busy camwhoring with tha party peeps wtf

Right after Flizzow’s show came the Taiwanese rap artist MC Hotdog (LOL glamour-names nowadays) along with his sidekick. They were rapping in chinese and I saw his fans rapping along really loudly with him.

Eh no joke. This fella has been on tour in USA!
Quite internationally acclaimed too

I didn’t caption the photo as such because I wanted him out of KL
One of his famous hits was ‘Korean Invasion’

Finally, it was the showdown that all of us were waiting for – The Black Eyed Peas! A lil introduction here for those of you who doesn’t know them (OMG who doesn’t know those peas should be sent to remedial school)

Will.I.Am | Fergie | Taboo | Apl de Ep

They are that awesome hiphop/dance pop music act from L.A and is one of the few artistes to have ever held the number 1 and 2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. Their chart toppers pwned the US charts for 25 consecutive weeks, creating history!

WICKEDDD RIGHT?

But waiting for the them to come on stage was forever, I tell ya. Nevermind, we took our own sweet time at the Silver Zone (freeflow of Guiness woots!) to camwhore all we wanted before the show anyways.

Looking very sober aren’t we?
Hehs.

Once the peas get their asses on stage, the party of the year will finally begin! Aight begin… BEGIN ALREADY!

Aptly, they kickstarted their show with ‘Let’s Get It Started’ and I won’t tell you what song they’re gonna end this good good night with because but I’ve got a feeling you already know! Pun intended.

They went back in time too and belted out some of their older hits which never failed to remind us of how awesome they’ve been year after year, album after album!

Off the top of my head, I remember them singing these older records :

Let’s Get It Started
Shut Up
Where Is The Love?
Don’t Phunk With My Heart
Pump It!

And their newer singles from their latest album The E.N.D (Energy Never Dies)

Boom Boom Pow
Meet Me Halfway
Imma Be
I Gotta Feeling

Their 90 minute performance took everyone by storm but the part which I despised the most was sloshing around in muddy ankle-deep puddles just to take photos of the Peas & their stellar performance.

Funnily enough, I was distracted from the ickiness of having my toes soaked in murky water when Will.I.Am seemed to be giving us a vocabulary lesson on the name of their single ‘Imma Be’. He went something like this -

“Imma Be, guys, doesn’t make no sense.
The correct way is actually ‘I am going to be’.
It’s said in short form as imma be,
but the meaning is still the same, yeah?“

Uh, okayyy.

We heard ya loud & clear, sir!

Will.I.Am then proceeded to spin his magic and remixed a few other record breaking hits. Popular club songs such as the ones from Flo-Rida, MJ and Rihanna had everyone at the mosh pit go crayzeee.

I was surprised when he played & remixed some old skool rock and acoustic songs too. Whoa! That really got me there. Oh, and… he also played the same set the night before at Blanc Le Club.

Okay ’nuff about Will.I.Am already. I was already tweeting so much about him last night during their performance itself wtf. Make way for everyone’s fave of the night!

Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie

Her voice was insanely powerful omg. The way she sang her vocals on ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Boom Boom Pow’. I literally raised my eyebrows when she held her chords for so bloody long and at such high pitched notes. She’s that good.

I’ve got not much to say about APL though, but I found his little mini-paces and odd dances kinda amusing. It fascinated me for a mo when I spotted him.

Oh and we’ve got Taboo here in the house too!

I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I found him to be very womanly yet masculine at the same time. SoonSeng, who was standing with me was also of the opinion that he was very feminine in certain gestures (or perhaps his long hair? IDK)

But check out his tattoos & muscular body. Faaar from girlish.Yup.
He reminds me of some martial arts cartoon character from somewhere though.

BREAK TIME!

Impressive futuristic dance routine transformer interlude dancers
who eventually transformed into stereo speakers

PROBABLY FOR THEM TO CHANGE OR DRINK GUINNESS and

FOR US TO CAMWHORE & DRINK MORE GUINNESS WHAT ELSE

Ohya.
You should see KY’s photos towards the end when he got hyper
from one too many Guinness & jumping around
LOLOLOL

Ohyay they’re back!

Singing their last few songs

There’ll be an annoying male voice singin atrociously throughout the video
but it’s worth a watch!
See how B.E.P adapted ‘Malaysia’ & ‘Kuala Lumpur’ into their song lyrics

And as you’ve already watched from the video above, they ended the good good night with that song! I had an awesome time partying away to the Peas – bet everyone in the house felt the same way! Randomly, I reckon this party was definitely on an immense budget though, check out those confetti!

This marks the end of 25th September’s
Arthur’s Day at Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach

Oh pardon me, I just remembered something interesting.
Will.I.Am kept saying Malaysia is a “beauuutifull country with beauuttifull culture and the foooood” and he pronounced Genting as ‘Gyen-Chee’.

Shot from the Silver Zone

Anyway, as I was saying, this event was certainly one to remember. After all, it lived up to its name of being the party of the year! Check out how it ended – with a big bang! Literally!

Asia’s Best Attraction wor.

Fireworks display was kinda long yay!
Think it lasted for more than 5 minutes

And my favorite was the heart-shaped fireworks display

Looks like Arthur sends his love from up above!

Phooohh finally. End of full coverage post, from the beginning till the very end of Arthur’s Day (except Danny One lol). Been sleeping at 5am since last night to quickly publish this post. Okay, it’s 4.43am now, eyes want to close edi. Good night

Have a good good night folks!
Were you there too?

Posted in Adverts/Reviews, Art, Events, International Artists, Local Artists, Media Affairs, Parties, Photography | 42 Comments »

To the ass who stole my hat

Friday, September 25th, 2009

I hardly ever have the time to write self-indulgent entries unfortunately. Most of my blog entries lately are all about events and food. But tonight, it’s gonna be different. I don’t give a flying rat’s ass.

BECAUSE SOMEONE
STOLE MY HAT!
Worse, a hat which I just bought a few minutes ago.

I didn’t even have the chance to wear it to any of the upcoming events! It’s this lil adorable black vintage hat with a black rose.

Kinda regretted that I didn’t wear it immediately after purchasing, all because it didn’t match my outfit. So I thought I’d save it for another day. All I had was some 5 minutes to try on the hat and to have Victoria take some pictures for me just to see how I’d look with it on.

I know I look weird/pale/whatever without make up but I don’t care either. Was just a test shot to see how my hat & I would turn up in pictures. And that, unfortunately, was the last time I wore it.

IT’S MY HAT, NOT YOURS B!TCH.

I hope it would catch fire and turn your hair into nothing but disintegrated debris if you ever wear it out. Either that, or it will simply fall off your head each time you try to take a picture with it. Why? Because I’m nasty like that.

On a lighter note, I can’t wait for Arthur’s Day by Guinness tonight! The Black Eyed Peas are so gonna boom boom pow the stage away. I guess, that should cheer me up.

PS : I want my hat back T___T

Posted in Fashion, FML Moments/Mishaps, Pain/Anger/Rants, Personal, Shopping | 20 Comments »

Hard Rock Hotel Penang Launch!

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

FINALLY! What could be better news? The Hard Rock Hotel Penang finally opens its doors for business on the 19th September 2009. For those not in the know, it is a full-fledged hotel inspired by rock & roll music everywhere!

Met fellow photographer, Mac
One of my old buddies

Hard Rock Hotel totally breaks the mould of conventional beach resorts! There were guitar engravings everywhere and their hotel staff greets us guests with a “How May I Rock Your World Today?”

Check out Penang’s largest free-form beach-sand swimming pool, complete with sand islands, water slides and private poolside cabanas.

I sat down for a while to do some people-watching. Noticed lotsa hot arses walking about and of course, other fascinating sights of families with children.

Whoops. I think I was spotted!

RUNNNNNN

Today, it was entirely packed with people chilling by the deck chairs and also playing in the pool. All the rooms were fully booked for the entire week!

Full occupancy of the hotel at today’s soft launch!

Thanks Elisa the Communications Manager, I was invited to join their blast. I was awed beyond words, as I adore everything rock-themed \m/.

Polarized this photo a lil

Other than the impressive features, they do boast some colorful fun to enthuse the children as well. Sudden squirts of water sprinklers come and go, and the pails above fills up and overturns a whole bucketful of water gush onto you!

Where the kids frolic about

and ermm.. adults, if it floats their boat

I fancied how most of the rooms had an absolute beach frontage exposure. Totally gives you the I’m-on-a-holiday-leave-me-alone! feel.

The little bridge across the pool

Imagine opening your glass sliding door and there you have it, pool deckchairs and the 25,000sq feet pool at your feet to dive into, anytime you want.

It has built-in speakers underwater, mind you! So you can still rock on even in your goggles and wetsuits. Head banging under the sea anyone?

The swim-up bar, half-submerged in the pool

Heck, if you get thirsty or feel like partying, you can even beckon the waiters by the poolside bar – The Shack – to swim across to serve you your drink. They have all types of international & local beverages, alcoholic and even non-alcoholic

And ice-cold beer when the day gets sunny

Yes, you read right. They literally swim across the pool to your room to get your order and swim back with your drink!

So *cough* if you simply despise a fella from the bar or are just in the mood to abuse your authority as a Hard Rock Hotel guest, order a drink every 5 minutes and get him wet. Pun unintended!

Wanting to take a lil rest, I sat by the bar to quench my thirst with a glass of Rocky Chocolate. It was nice how most of their beverages had connections to rock themes. If ya wanna rock, ya might as well go all the way!

Speaking of F&B, Imma show you their Pizzeria just around corner.

A warm and cosy Pizzeria by the poolside wide, with a variety of rockin’ pizzas, international local snacks as well. I had a lil picha session with the Executive Chef of this Pizzeria. Heh

They had a live demonstration preps of pies, pizzas and other pastries, all oven baked to perfection! Check out the coal oven behind this jolly ol’ chef.

Nothing like Madame Lovette’s human pies from
Sweeney Todd’s The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!

As I turned around, something caught my eye. There were ongoing guitar lessons! It was a little session of the guitar instructor guiding the lil rockers their basic strumming and plucking some old skool rock faves.

From the 1st batch of students

And something for the kids as well!

Lil Rock, the kindergarten & care center for kids

Had enough of Hard Rock Hotel Penang yet guys?
There’s more to come on the next entry. Notice that all I’ve showed you was only the exterior comprising the beachfront, the freeform pool, the bars and al-fresco food & beverage area?

Stay tuned for the next part of Hard Rock Hotel Penang’s visual tour – the interior!

We’re just halfway through this visual tour!

Next up, is where you will see the glamourous hotel entrance, crystal chandeliers which changes colors every 10 seconds bearing the words Hard Rock Hotel, a larger-than-life statue of Michael Jackson round-a-bout, the rockstar Hard Rock Cafe..

*DEEP BREATH*
Where were we?

…the lobby area with a bar concept & bartenders flaring, the showcase of authentic rockstar memorabilla with LCD screen rock MTVs, glass marquee rockroom (ballroom), a Harley Davidson superbike display, Lil Rock Kid’s Club, the Body Rock gym and more.

Come inside Hard Rock Hotel with me

This is definitely the place where rockers meet.
You know you want to see more of it.

Posted in Adverts/Reviews, Art, Current Affairs/Malaysia, Events, Media Affairs, Observations/Sights/Sounds, Openings/Launches, Photography, Travels/Holidays | 33 Comments »

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