camp rock; living the dream camp @ KLPAC

hi guys! i'm back!
phew..pmr is finally over and after a month of 'leave' form the Net,i am now back on the line.so,how is everybody doing? :)
well anyways,while i was away,i've been a very loyal follower of Hitz FM.that radio station had been such an awesome companion in my time of pressure.my favourite slot is Hitz Party with Ean.ok,so what's the deal with this radio?i'll just cut to the chase,i heard an advertisement about camp rock: living the dream camp held by hitz fm in conjunction with the disney channel.at first it made me think,ah this is just another one of those crappy programmes aimed to the DCOM Addicts (disney channel original movie addicts mind you,for example the fanatics of HSM).but time after time,my heart keeps on telling me to check it out on the Hitz web,so that's what i did.immediately,i was interested to join in.according to the site,this Malaysian version of Camp Rock is all about a one-day camp of performing arts,where the teachers and instructors are those of the experienced ones in the music industry.on the next day,i tried phoning Hitz FM during Ean's slot to showcase my musical talent(which was songwriting) but i wasn't really that fortunate.when Ean came across an accident,JFK replaced him temporarily for Hitz Party.This guy is tougher,most of them who got through the line wasn't 'worthy' enough to receive an exclusive ticket to the camp.i almost gave up when it came to the last day of the contest.however,my last hope was sending an application online.i submitted my lyrics to the song 'All I Need Is You'.
A week later,disney channel phoned me,informing me that i was accepted into the camp.i wasn't really excited as i thought it was just another one of JJ and Rudy's Gotcha tricks.to my surprise,i actually DID receive a letter from disney channel,along with the exclusive ticket,a parental and waiver consent form along with the map to the location of the camp! it wasn't a joke after all! i was nothing but overly energetic the day i received the letter (although pmr was just days away).i prepared for pmr,and at 11pm,i'll start practising the song 'This Is Me',just in case we had to sing that later on.
On the day of the camp,-18th oct 08-,i woke up early at about 5.30am.i couldn't really sleep the night before because of all the excitement.at about 6am,my brother-in-law,my mom and I departed to astro office at bukit jalil.upon arrival,parents/legal guardian were required to report their child to the facilitators there before grabbing a sandwich(which i didn't take,because of the eggs in it,hehe),a juice box and an energy bar while waiting for the bus to arrive.we met que haidar,who was a legal guardian of qalif khan,cikgu linda jasmine's son.so the rumors about their affair WAS true! hehe.i sat with daniel,this totally awesome 10-year-old with more talent in proportion to his miniature size.we were then divided into 2 groups,25 of us were on air participants,and the rest were online winners like myself.we rode in two different buses.
The trip to KLPAC took 45minutes.we played games in the bus along with the facilitators just to kill the time.i pitied qalif a lot,he was just too adorable to say anything.when we played the acronym game (making up sentences by using letters in a word as initials..e.g: c.a.m.p-cat attacked my pig..haha),everyone went 'aaaaww' whenever qalif says something.he ends up closing his face and remained silent.awwww..hehe.
upon our arrival,we met ean and natalie.oh,and jakeman as well.the place was nice,kinda like a dance floor with mirrors all around.it felt like being in AF for one day.
the first session was songwriting 101.cikgu JD (i love him!! hehe) and cikgu uno from pop shuvit were our celebrity teachers.they taught us that songwriting could be either random or specific.it could be about anything we feel like writing about,and the genre has to fit our personality.as an example,they asked us for a topic to write on.Ean told them to write on breakfast,haha.this is the funny part (i'll upload a video of it later).although the song 'Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day' was kind of crappy,the melody was surprisingly brilliant! haha.i loved it, a lot.our expert instructors,by the way,were nur fatima and the legendary audi mok.they told us that songwriting is not really as complicated as it looks.melodies can come at any times,when it does,we have to make sure that we have a voice recorder (a handphone at least) so that we wouldn't forget that idea.it requires creativity and guts as well.(it wasn't really audi mok's moment though,he couldn't get a brilliant melody at that particular moment for demonstration).he was really nice enough to ask me to email him anytime i want him to listen or read the stuff i wrote for complimentary expert advice.such a nice,friendly guy :) afterwards,four of the campers were chosen to present the song their wrote on stage (they were desiree,shika,yang jiew and amanda..four of them eventually joined my syok sendiri gang along with ian tan,haha).they did an awesome job,especially desiree who wrote a song called 'i love you' for her crush in college.yang jiew,who assumed himself as someone who is anti-social,was too shy to sing although his lyrics were brilliant.JD was nice enough to help him out,hehehe.
the second session was fun too,it was singing 101 with cikgu suki and cikgu maziah selamat. cikgu suki started off by telling the story of her journey from zero to hero,and singing two songs 'Siapaku' (the malay version of 'This Is Me') and 'Usah'.fantastic voice cikgu! the expert for this slot was cikgu maziah.she taught us some basic warm-ups (hissing and bubbling).next,we were required to pair up in duets and perform
'This Is Me' for 45seconds.i paired up with desiree and was numbered group 15.at first,we were out of ideas in how to present the song.none of us had any,and the big problem is none of us can reach the high note in the chorus.it would sound really weird if the both of us sang with our head voices.luckily,desiree and i came up with this idea of harmonizing our voices.we thought of parts,and tried to blend them in.we practised,and supported the other teams.that was how the syok sendiri gang (consisting me,desiree,ian,yang jiew,shika and amanda) was formed.we were called 'the fan base of everyone' since we were absolutely supportive to everyone when they sang,haha.crazy times.when it came to our turn,i made a sign language to natalie,saying that the both of us were nervous.she then reacted by saying 'oh..i don't think that's possible,i saw you guys practising hard back there..good luck,break a leg!'
ian was right,we did gain energy from eachother as soon as we felt the song in our hearts.before we knew it,it was the end of our performance.after everyone had finished performing 'This Is Me',it was up to the judges now.third place went to a group of two girls,desiree and me lost hope by then.we thought,probably the time was too short for the both of us to practise and it's impossible that we could ever win the second of first prize now.the second one goes to a boy-girl duet team,and we expected the first play to be raja and yuszen's (the boys who beat-boxed instead of singing to the minus one of the song).group 14 was announced as the winner.it was weird when we saw no one stood up to accept the prize.silly us,that was OUR TEAM! unbelievably me and desiree won! we had to go up the stage and received a webcam each from cikgu maziah.this camp just keeps on getting better!
during the lunchbreak (western food,yummy....),all of us decided to pose on stage-that explains the syok sendiri gang,hahaha.ian,who was disappointed that he didn't get a chance to perform his song during songwriting 101,decided to bring his guitar with him and showed off his stuff at the lunch hall.he's got talent! he sang a song he wrote and a song from one of my favourite bands 'The Script' entitled "the man who can't be moved'.he caught everyone's attention! he was awesome.
up next was showmanship 101 with cikgu moots and cikgu linda jasmine.cikgu moots told us the do's and dont's on stage (Ean was his prop,haha).and cikgu linda jasmine told us all about perfoming on stage.we were then divided once again into two groups,one group on the left and the other on the right.we were asked to cross the dance floor to the rhythm of 'we rock',freestyle.there were prizes for this too.ian was one of the best,haha.
the final slot was dancing 101 with alam from the reality show 'so you think you can dance maalysia' and cikgu linda jasmine again.the warm-ups was crazy,and the steps are tricky.it was fun though,although i sucked! haha.more prizes were given to the best dancers (i wasn't one of them,haha).
every great day has to set somehow.the day ended well.we had tea at the lunch hall before returning to bukit jalil.i said good bye to all the celebrity teachers and received a hug each from ean and natalie.on our way back,we played more games like guessing songs,and exchanged contact details with everyone.i even discovered a rhythm guitarist for Midway scarlet! his name is raja shafiq.
the day went well.i hope there's gonna be more camps such as this,for the sake of developing funky,fresh performers and writers to add more varieties in art to the industry.i love camp rock! thank you hitz fm and disney!