I mean seriously, it’s just sitting there day and night. It probably gets turned on once a month… Sigh…

Posted on January 20th, 2010 by Jon
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Of late, I’ve become interested in the subject of astronomy, thanks to my meeting with Dr Chong of Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Physics. Dr Chong is an iconic figure in the field of astronomy in Penang, no less the whole of Malaysia. Talk to the man and I’m pretty sure you’ll be interested in what makes the planets and stars go round. If not, at least you’ll know why planets and moons in our solar system are spherically shaped and not squares, triangles etc.

Anyways, there was an annular eclipse that took place last Friday, with the eclipse track starting from countries in Africa, moving across the ocean to southern India, Sri Lanka, then moving across the ocean again to Myanmar and ending in southern China.

This annular eclipse was quite special as it was the longest annular eclipse in the third millennium, lasting some 11 mins and 8 secs (somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean). Oh ya, the next longest annual eclipse will be in 3043.

Annular eclipses are different from total ones because for annular eclipses, the moon, while it passes between the earth and sun, does not completely block out the sun’s disc due to moon being further away from the earth as compared to during total solar eclipse. What happens then, during an annular eclipse is that viewers get to see what’s know as the ring of fire.

Unfortunately, I missed the chance to go to China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka or to India to witness this event, so that means I missed the ring of fire. But, Dr Chong and co. still made the best of the situation and we all gathered up on the Queensbay Mall rooftop to catch the partial eclipse that came our way. From where we were, our sun was 23.3% covered by the moon, not enough to cause dimming or cooler temperatures.

The pix will do the talking…

Photo taken using a Mylar filter from my compact camera just after start of partial eclipse

Photo taken from a telescope

Photo taken from telescope

Photo taken using a Mylar filter from my compact camera just before maximum phase

Photo taken with telescope just before maximum phase

If you notice carefully, the holes where the light passes through are crescent suns!

Dr Chong reflecting crescent suns from a mirror to a white card. Another cool trick to do during eclipses

Maximum phase!

Check out the rough ridges between the sun and moon. I think the sun light is outlining the surface of the moon…

Dr Chong’s spectrohelioscope aka rainbow makerEclipse ending…

Posted on January 20th, 2010 by Jon
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Merry Christmas everyone!!! Tis the season to be jolly…

Ok – gotta catch Avatar now…

Posted on December 24th, 2009 by Jon
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Posted on December 16th, 2009 by Jon
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Day 2 of  PIJF = totally wicked.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

Pix from day 1  will come later, cos I was using my buddy Wilson’s rig that day – and he brought his gear home to KL before I could get the pix, hahaha…

Posted on December 10th, 2009 by Jon
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To all jazz and music lovers/enthusiasts/ etc etc: keep Dec 3, 4, 5, and 6 free.

As mentioned earlier, it’s that time of the year again for the Penang Island Jazz Festival. This is the 6th year it’s running, thanks to all the support the festival has received and of course to Paul Augustine, the man who had the vision to carry out such a feat in the first place.

Personally, I’ve been to four festivals so far – I missed out on the 2006 one – and I have really enjoyed them all, since the festival started in 2004. This time around, there’s an exciting line-up coming our way, and I can’t wait for the weekend to come around.

The venue is at the same place for all the previous festivals: The Bayview Beach Resort in Batu Ferringhi.

Let’s start with the “Jazz by the Beach” main stage programme for Dec 5:

6.30pm – 7.10pm Island Palm Beach Boys (Penang, Malaysia)
7.20pm – 8.00pm Buzz Bros Band (Holland)
8.10pm – 8.50pm In The Country (Norway)
9.00pm – 9.40pm Sizhukong (Taiwan)
9.50pm – 10.30pm Studnitzsky Trio (Germany)
10.40pm – 11.20pm Band of Brothers (Thailand)

“Jazz by the Beach” main stage programme for Dec 6:

6.30pm – 7.10pm Charlie Jung Band (Korea)
7.20pm – 8.00pm Paulo Bellinati & Cristina Azuma (Brazil)
8.10pm – 8.50pm Organamix (Singapore / Thailand)
9.00pm – 9.40pm Dainius Pulauskas Band (Lithuania)
9.50pm – 10.30pm Michelle Nicolle Quartet (Australia)
10.40pm – 11.20pm Janek Gwizdala Project (USA / Norway)

I’m really looking forward to the Janek Gwizdala Project because it is featuring world-acclaimed drummer Jojo Mayer. The man is a legend and yeah, he’s coming to Penang!

There’s also lots of other activities which are going on throughout the festival which I will post later on.

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Jon
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There’s gonna be a little jazz concert next week as a run up to this year’s Penang Island Jazz Festival. Yup, it’s that time of the year again where all music lovers come down to enjoy some jazz by the beach on the first weekend of December. This year’s event is going to be huge, but I’ll write more about later.

So, just for an appetiser, the Penang Jazz Community is going to hold its mini concert  “A Jazz Prelude” on Thursday, 19 Nov 2009, 7.30pm at Sandy Bay Paradise hotel. This effort is also to raise funds for the Little Penang Market.

Acts that will be performing include the Northern Jazz Ensemble (big band style jazz), Dalat Jazz Ensemble, Dalat Vocal Ensemble, Georgetown Singers, De Leon Jazz Experience and Tonal Alchemy.

Tickets are priced at RM20. To get them give my buddy Jerome Quah a call at +6017-476-7709.

See y’all there!

Posted on November 13th, 2009 by Jon
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Mega exam tomorrow on Gordon’s Music Learning Theory… Dunno whether can finish covering all the topics or not…

Posted on November 4th, 2009 by Jon
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls… the moment we’ve all been waiting for:

Destination, the latest album from Ocean of Fire is out and is available for sale! I must say that I’m pretty relieved that the real thing is now out. After two years of messing around in the studio, something has finally come out of the oven smelling good.

I’m pretty pleased with the sound this time as compared to our self-titled previous recording effort. As usual, guitars and bass were recorded at Kelvyn’s place while the drums were recorded at Hits Recording Studios. This time around, the band agreed to have a more radio friendly kinda sound, so we looked up our buddy JD of Pop Shuvit who also runs Studio 21:05 to have him mix our raw tracks before being mastered by Nick Lee of The Ark Studios.

The result = progressively influenced rock + funky stuff + indie spirit + a lot of other stuff with a touch of finesse.

The CD is priced at RM25 and in true indie spirit, we’ve decided to give the retailers a miss and to stick to our direct selling method. To get your copy of Destination, drop a line at my buddy and rhythm guitarist Chiat or leave a message on the band’s Facebook page, or just leave a message in my comments box and we’ll get back to you shortly!

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by Jon
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I recently attended my friend Hanyu’s wedding in Cyberview Lodge, Cyberjaya. It’s a real nice place to hold weddings actually – especially outdoor ones. The landscaping work + cool water feature which doubles as the baby pool really turns the inner area into a nice garden

I first visited the place a couple of  year’s back when the my old Jazz Trio played at my friends’ wedding (click here to check it out)

Nice ambiance, food’s not too bad either…

but

“Where High Tech and Paradise meet”? Err… talk about having a discreet tagline

Anyways, congrats Hanyu and Pang!

Looks like you’re up next Annie, hahaha…

Posted on October 6th, 2009 by Jon
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