Some updates... finally!

To my dear loyal Julian's Head readers (as well as my other blogs!),

I would really like to thank you for bearing with me over my severe lack of updates over the past couple of weeks, months even. It's just a phase thing.. I'm not in the blogging mood that much, really. So many things to do, and to take care of. Anyway, I would like to update just a little bit of what I had been up to the last week or so..

Boplicity..

Well... here it is, my new band, Julian Chan's BOPLICITY. We did our first gig at No Black Tie if you've noticed already, last week. It turned out really good, or the band did, at least. You can read about it here (and pictures are on the way!). But do keep a lookout of this band... I think it's a really awesome band, I'm really looking forward not just to our next gig, but all our future undertakings (before I leave for the US, anyway).

Julian @ Singapore...

Thursday:

I went to the Lion City last week, just for the weekend. I had planned to meet my dear saxophone-soul-brother, David Muehsam. We had planned to meet up, hang out, and just jam at Jazz @ Southbridge, with David Gomes and his trio (with Junji Delfino as well, for the Friday and Saturday).

My trip started rather funnily (but quite stressful for me) on Thursday morning. I was so bummed from the past of days from Boplicity and some other gigs, I ended up waking up at 6.30am (and I was supposed to catch a 7.30am bus at Bangsar!!), even though I had already set a 4am alarm which I snoozed and dozed off again. I got out of bed like a crazy fella, and packed so fast, it's the fastest I've ever packed for a weekend! I left my house at about 7am, and sped to the First Coach office and managed to get there at about 7.30am (I had to call them to hold the bus a short while, and they did, bless them!). I'm even surprised I managed to get there in the nick of time! Anyway, I had to leave my car at a metered parking lot, to the dismay of my mum. As a little upset from getting the grill from her, I realized she was right, that someone could've easily towed my car away, and we're not talking about DBKL here. Anyhow, my brother managed to arrange to pick my car up with a spare car key I have (Thanks guys, I owe you lots!).

Got to Lion City without a fuss. Met up with David at his hotel and we went to Little India for a nice South Indian buffet fare. Not the high class variety, but the nice small, home cooked variety. Walked around to SimLim Square and checked out some computer stuff, handphone stuff, etc. Did you know how cheap handphones are in Singapore? Damn... and I'm talking about original handphones here, not the "underwater" variety. Of course, the "underwater" ones are even cheaper then! Then we headed to Jurong East to go to the usual shop where we get our saxophone stuff. Stayed there for a couple of hours, while we compared horns, got it looked at and fixed by the technician. Met up another friend of David's - Timothy- who runs a yoga school in SG, for dinner, and we hung out all night at JSB. Me and David of course went on stage to jam for at least two sets for a few songs. But since we were tired that night, we weren't really in top form, but it was still good fun.

At this point I must say this: The rhythm section of Eddie Jensen and Tan Boon Gee (with the fiery David Gomes) is a killer rhythm section! Probably the most killer rhythm section in Singapore right now!!! If you've time, go down south and check them out!

Friday:

Friday afternoon started out just alone hanging out at Parkway Parade (about 10 minutes walk from David's apartment). Shopped at Gramaphone and got myself three CDs: Branford Marsalis' Braggtown, Brandon Fields' Fields and Strings, and Miles Davis' Complete Birth of The Cool album. And I got it at quite a steal. Then I met up with David later, to go out for a run at East Coast Park (not until the heavy rain cleared). Did about 5km, before heading back to the apartment to get ready to go to town for dinner and Jazz @ Southbridge. Friday night's jam was much more interesting, as Singaporean pianist Jeremy Monteiro came in and sat in for the last few songs for the night, and we jammed on I'll Remember April and a blistering fast Cherokee!! The energy from all the band members were also at quite a high. Me and David definitely had more energy banks, from the 5km run we did (and not to mention great food at Chella's Vegetarian Corner @ Little India!).

After the jam, food was to follow, of course! We chatted a lot that night (like musicians always do.. lots of things to say), from politics, music, religion, you name it!! One thing about hanging out with musicians, and I'm guilty of it at times, is that you'll always hear a multitude of information. Who says musicians are dumbf**ks..?? Wait till you meet these people...

Saturday:

Next day wasn't much rest for me too, really! We (me, David and Junji G) got up quite early
(1030am.. that's early for a musician!), and headed to Parkway Parade (they needed to go to the bank to settle some stuff), and we had an early brunch. Shopped around some more (shopping's a good angst management therapy, I might add!), and bought some clothes, and branded fancy umbrellas (I got a nice small green Esprit for me mum!), as it was raining and we needed to get back. Later, I met up with David Muehsam again at Sim Lim Sq, and checked out some more phones. Although I had my eyes set on the Nokia 5500 Sport, I decided against it after testing it. The interface and the user-friendliness were not so great. I ended getting the same phone as David's: Sony Ericsson K610i. It's quite a nice phone, very well done, I must say. After I got back to KL, I managed to purchase-download a software to enable it to sync with the iCal program on my Mac (and it syncs way better than the Motorola, which is such a pale comparison.. they look good.. only!).

Had dinner again at Chella's (the food there is AMAZING!!!), chatted a whole lot more.. about yoga, life, music, the works. (Note: this trip has also been heavy in terms of what we chat about this time 'round, not your usual lounge conversation variety!). Then it was JSB, again, for another round of jamming!! This time around, there was a much bigger crowd, and much more appreciative one, as well. So the energy was pretty intense as well. But the after effects of a high energy music exposure.. wow... very tiring. After a round of supper, we taxi-ed our way back. We said our goodbyes to David Muehsam (he was due for a flight to New York the following morning), and it was back to Gomes' apartment.

Sunday:

After packing all my stuff, I napped for about an hour, showered, and woke David up at about 6.45am. We left the apartment at about 7am, took a taxi to the First Coach departure stop, and headed back to KL at about 7.30am.

Later, me and David headed to Top Room for another round of jam sessions, for the Top Room Sunday jams. We had a couple of younger fellas coming up to jam, and showing their mettle a little. It was quite a good jam.

Monday:

I slipped, and sprained my right ankle! Argh.. how crazy is that? Have to lay off running for now.. sigh.. It's getting better at time of writing, though. Can't wait to get back on track again..