My blog

Label... Performances Greetings Poems and Thoughts Category... Standard Entry Video Information Press Release Event News

• Lou Dau (老竇)

  Monday, Jun 16, 2008 1:13PM / Information / Poems and Thoughts / Members only

  
  
  Lou Dau is a slang commonly used only by Cantonese, meaning daddy. I believe not many Cantonese speakers know what the this word really means, most people think it's an impolite term to address 'father', but the fact is this word's came from a very special history. Please allow me to briefly explain:
  
  The word LOU (Old), is a term to address someone who is respected, like LOU SI (Teacher); and the word DAU came from a person named DAU YIN SAN (燕山) from the famous Chinese THREE CHARACTER CLASSICS (三字經), a book of ancient Chinese social moral values teachings.
  
  DAU YIN SAN *Mister DAU from Sparrow Mountain (竇燕山) was a famous Chinese personnel who's 5 sons has became 5 successful and respectful heroes under his teachings and training. LOU DAU eventually became a term describing someone who brings up good kids. And that's what me and sister call our dad.
  
  We always hear people say "I've got the Greatest Dad in the world". And here is a few stories about MY Greatest Lou Dau I'd like to share.
  
  A Major Influence in Music:
  My Lou Dau (Hardy) is a professional piano/keyboard player and a dedicated jazz music lover. There's always music around us, in the earlier days, it's either hanging out at his gigs or band rehearsals or listening to the greats such as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Nancy Wilson, etc in the household.
  
  When I was 9, he took me and my little sis Mikki to the recording studio to record for a TVC session, initially for the fun of it, but little did he know, that session was the beginning of a regular part-time job for me, while other kids staying home watching TV, I was in the studio singing to the songs they hear.
  
  Discipline :
  As we grew a bit older and mom decided to become a full time housewife. Lou Dau took on a full time job as an insurance sales and play keyboard at cocktail lounges during some evenings. He always finds time to sit with us and guide us with our homework. Mikki and I were no little angels at home, spankings, scoldings and time out sessions were inevitable. Despite of those pain in the butt and crying sessions there's always weekends we look forward to, Dennis' Children's Meal or Sushi Dinners, and we get to buy our favorite toys or stationaries. If we did good with our exams, we get to turn on the Atari TV game and play tennis or race cars.
  
  Guardian Angel:
  There was a what I call the "Black Hole Period", where I had no idea where i was heading in life ended up focusing on nothing but parties and discos. Not once giving me any hard times, Lou Dau took me to the clubs where he plays keyboards for a singer and 3 backing vocalists, they sing and dance with such quality and unity. I was fascinated by that whole package, ended up there most nights instead of elsewhere. Ever since then I took music seriously and ended up living in Bangkok, Los Angeles, Macau, Singapore following where the music's calling. With his handful in his new family life, Lou Dau will always shows his face wherever I was, taking me to do groceries when I had nothing in the fridge; giving me money when I'm low; bringing me music when I'm down, making sure I'm doing alright.
  
  A Great Friend:
  We share the love of jazz music together, many of my friends here I'm sure have seen me and Lou Dau watching concerts together. He will show me stuff that he listens to and share views. Whenever I have a gig, he'll always be in the audience, never once he complimented about my singing, but i always see the proudness glowing from his face when my fellow musicians tells him how good his daughter sings and when he's watching in the audience.
  
  Unconditional Giver:
  As you can see in the picture, Lou Dau and I don't resemble at all. It has been a topic people constantly ask and talk about that throughout these 30 some odd years (nicely or rude). I too, was puzzled for a long time but never dared to ask. The truth finally revealed to me by my great grandma before she passed away when I reached 17, and here's the story:
  Lou Dau met my mom when I was a baby, until after they got married I was always known as the 'niece' of hers. Yeah so Lou Day was tricked.. ha...
  I don't know what other men would do if this happens to them, but my Lou Dau, took me in, gave me birth certificate with a Chinese name and a surname after his, brought me up and with all those things that he is I have mentioned above, without ever asking for anything back.
  
  I feel bad most of the times knowing I probably won't be able to pay back what my Lou Dau has given to me, at the least I want the world to know what an ANGEL my Lou Dau is and how lucky I am to be his daughter.
  
  Lou Dau, I LOVE YOU too.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  5 comments –  Add a comment

• Global World Peace Meditation Event

  Monday, Apr 7, 2008 11:20AM / Event / Members only

  hello everyone,  hope all is well!   :) sorry for not updating much lately but i have loads of things happening at the moment and i wanted to gather my thoughts and post them up nicely for you.
  
   there's is a very meaningful and important event going on today which i would like to announce.  i am aware that not everybody is familiar with meditation or theory or Law Of Attraction.  a group of Law Of Attraction teachers are gathering worldwide, via the internet broadcast to perform a meditation focusing on World Peace, main focus will be on problems in Tibet, Zimbawe, Middle East, etc. anywhere you know there's some serious tragedies going on.  if you're interested, please kindly follow the following instructions: 
  
  1. before 7pm tonight (HKT), find one hour which you can be on your own without any distractions. 
  
  2. go to : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lawofattraction/2008/04/06/SPECIAL-BROADCAST-WORLD-PEACE-MEDITATION 
  
  3. sit straight, close your eyes, listen and let the guide lead you through the meditation. 
  
  this is a for a good cause, no funny or weird tricks. so if you are concern about what's going on around the world, got one hour of your time and have an open mind. please kindly check it out  thanks!! xoxoxoxoxo!
  
  

  1 comment –  Add a comment

• I Wish This World Remains...

  Saturday, Mar 29, 2008 4:59PM / Standard Entry / Poems and Thoughts / Members only

      i wish this world remains  i wish this world retraces  back into the womb free from fears, kings, and spears cast a wish with heart, create all lives and things the answer's simply we are Lives of eternity like sun the moon and stars no matter where we are  their smiles remain the same can someone tell me how can we  enslave ourselves by the  self-imaginary Fear we create can someone tell me how can we  betray, destroy, divide others with self claimed supremacy i wish this world remains for the weaks to see with a wish of love  that some day we'll all arise align our souls in the arms of reality we reunite let Truth slips through gently with realize laughs and tears react to the abuses we created in this life  here and now, perfectly clear a journey of creation and beauty this may be different the next time round all my heart, i wish this world remains
  
  

  3 comments –  Add a comment

• GONG HEI FAT CHOI!!!!!

  Monday, Feb 11, 2008 12:11PM / Standard Entry / Members only

  wishin you and your loved ones SUM SEUNG SI SING (HEART THINKS THINGS HAPPEN) CHOI YUEN GWANG JUN (WEALTH SOURCE WILD ENTER) LUNG MA JING SUN (DRAGON HORSE SPERM GOD) SIU HAU SEUNG HOI (LAUGH MOUTH ALWAYS OPEN) CHING CHUN SEUNG JUE (GREEN YOUTH ALWAYS INJECT) here's a greeting card i made for you!! http://angelitali.com/CNY2008c.swf mmwwwaaaaaaa!
  
  

  6 comments –  Add a comment

• A Stomach Of Gas, nominating WTF awards for club owners and event organizers of the year.

  Monday, Oct 22, 2007 4:11AM / Standard Entry / Members only

  Stumble into a few what I may call "let downs" with gigs these few months, that has raised a lot of questions regarding integrity, respect, standards issues in nowadays live music scene. The biggest question is, WTF's wrong with people nowadays!???
  
  And here are the stories:
  
  1. In july, I got booked and confirmed to do 3 nights in a club in KL in mid October. With my previous experiences with gigs in KL, work visa process usually takes a month's time, I have sent in all my info and required documents to the club months ahead, and they have asked me to book my flight which they said they'll reimburse me when I arrive. After chasing their musicians regarding repertoire, and got no reply for a whole month, I didn't pursue with booking my flights to KL. Along the way I have turned down another gig. Then came October 1, I sent the club another email reminding them if they still do not reply I will have to consider the gig canceled. Ha! a reply came in a flash telling me that they are having problems apply for work permit due to their immigration law. I wonder, if I never contacted them, will they ever contact me and let me know what's up?
  
  2. August, a Jazz Festival organizer booked and confirmed me to perform this year at their Festival this November in Jakarta, they have assigned a band to play with me which I have played with last year for the same festival. They also asked me to book my flight immediately and confirm my dates. I was quite happy with the arrangement because it would fill up my November's schedule just nicely. As a habit, I usually won't book my flights until I get a written confirmation or contract from the organizers. They have been contacting me giving me the itinerary, locations and dates. Then they went silent for couple of months and there came 2 weeks ago, an email telling me that the head of the organizer is not happy with the pianist/band leaders music skills and due to budget restriction, they canceled us out. So much for the CONFIRMATIONS.
  
  3. This last one, wins the WTF award of the year.
  in August, Singapore Sun Festival, sponsored by Indochine Singapore, has booked me, Steve Thornton, Casey and Mhd Noor to do a 1 hour show tonight (21st Oct). I flew from Hong Kong to Singapore at my own expense, spent time and money rehearsing with Casey and Mhd Noor, those poor guys had to wake up earlier to rehearse with me and rehearse with other projects then gigging at night. Steve, due to his commitments in KL, he could only fly in this morning, we all did a 11am sound check, Casey and Mhd Noor had to rush to another rehearsal and rushed back at 8pm to the venue. After dinner at 9pm, we're standing by for our 10:30pm show, before us there are 2 other groups, one from KL, their slot supposed to be from 8:30-9:30, then an Australian group which supposed to play from 9:30-10:30, us from 10:30-11:30, then the highlight of the night, a group from Cuba, scheduled to perform from 11:30-12:30.
  
  The KL group played and played until I realized it was already past 10pm, naturally, the schedule is being pushed behind, the Australian group went up and played after them. We're just sitting there waiting for our set to start, settled the song list, we were ready to go. Then the project manager came and told us that we will have to cut our set short to half an hour because there are people from the Cuban Embassy and they want to watch the Cuban band sooner. We easily agreed to the arrangement and rearranged our set list, sat down and continue waiting. After about 10 minutes, the project manager came back again, she pulled Steve aside for a long chat. Steve came over and told us that our set has to be cut out because the Cuban Embassy people and some of the guests are complaining that they're waiting too long for the Cuban band to start, and some are threatening to ask for refund of the admission fee. We had no choice but to follow, the guys were really pissed, they didn't even wait til Australian band to finish, went and told the sound men to pack their drums and we left. Luckily, we're getting our gig's money, but the time and effort will never be able to be compensated. For me, I've lost my flight fare and a week of time which I rather be at my new home unpacking, and left with a big bag of gas in my stomach which I as so ready to use it to sing, now i'm sitting at home typing this blog and farting it out from my butt, prooooootttt!!!
  
  My words to club owners and organizers, if you have no clue how to run your businesses, go get a job as an intern or ask people who are experienced, We are skilled and professional musicians, not just any products that you can put or remove as displays anytime you wish.

  
  

  8 comments –  Add a comment

15

1/3

1

2

3

>