Pics Taken @ The Attic - SemiFinals....

Me' (V of Worship)

Rufus (V of Worship)

Darmin (V of Worship)

Daniel (V of Worship)

Hari (V of Worship)

Nick Davis

Anna Anthonia

Arjuna

Suzie

Wei Lin

Fraddy

Winners of the Semi-Finals - Vessel of Worship & Nick Davis

Winners of the Semi-Finals - Vessel of Worship & Nick Davis

Nick Davis, Arjuna & Me' (Vessel of Worship)

Eddy, Savvy & Nick Davis, Juliet, Arjuna, Me' & Llew

Vessel of Worship

Vessel of Worship

We're In The Finals....

We (Vessel of Worship) went into the semi finals at the Attic's Got Talent on Tuesday very confident of ourselves. However, we did not know what to expect from the other contestants. I was glad we went prepared. It was a fun evening. The boys were there by 7pm for the sound check. I was glad we did that. All the equaliser records were written and kept for our performance. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Llew Marsh for all the help and support he gave us throughout the night - sound check, setting up before each performance and for introducing us to the crowd very specially. "Thank you very much Llew". We (V of W) are also very blessed to have a Manager in Ms. Brenda James. We thank you very much Ms. Brenda for all your support, encouragement and your constant words of wisdom which always gives us that extra boost to do better everytime we perform.

The competition started at approximately 9.30pm. The line up was as follows:-

1. FRADDY - solo

2. SUZIE ELANIE - solo

3. WEI LIN - solo

4. NICK DAVIS - duet

5. VESSEL OF WORSHIP - band

6. ARJUNA - solo

7. ANNA SIGAMONEY - solo

It was a well mixed group of people. I enjoyed the company of all the contestants. We (V of W) were glad to have won the semi finals. The songs we performed at the semi-finals were Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall and Gimme Hope Jo'anna by Eddy Grant. The second song was an absolute cracker as all those present were dancing away. It was nice to see people enjoying the songs we played.

The finalists were:-

Vessel of Worship

Nick Davis

Arjuna

All the practices, the hours and hours of ensuring the sound was perfect, the keys were in tune and the singing was in the right pitch - all paid off.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who came and supported throughout the night:-

My dear fiancee, Tharsani Krishnasamy

All our friends from:-

CSA (Kamal)

HELP (Faeizal & Ram)

Atos Origin (Vikhram, Aylia, Liyana & Paul Michael)

HSBC (Bald Vick, Gauri and Rufus', Mark's and Hari's work mates)

VATS (Peter Michael, Calvin & friends)

Rohan Annan & his lovely wife Devika Akka

....and all friends from near and far.

We've made it to the finals and the gratitude goes to everyone above, but most importantly the boys of Vessel of Worship....

Rufus Aston Bexel - Rhythm, lead guitars & back up vocals

Risberg Dass Bexel - Drummer

Winston Palmer - Percussionist

Mark Pravind Daniel - Bassist

HariKumar - Beatboxer & Rapper

Darmin - Mirethenggum Maestro

....and me, Devanandan Palmer Batumalai - Lead vocals & pianist.

We've come this far boys, lets go all the way!

'LETS CONTINUE TO MAKE MUSIC & GLORIFY HIS NAME'

Vessel of Worship....

As most of you know Vessel of Worship (hereafter referred to as VW) will be performing at the Attic in Bangsar on the 17th of June 2008 (Tue). This is the second time we will be playing in a competition. In fact, the first was when we actually qualified for the semi finals which will be held this Tuesday. The name of the competition is 'The Attic's Got Talent'.

It is interesting how we managed to get into the competition. We were at the Attic on the 20th of April celebrating my birthday and while we were there, we played a few songs. Ruf on the guitars and back up vocals, Mark on the congas and me on the piano and vocals. Llew the owner of the Attic came by and told us that we should be participating in the Attic's Got Talent show. So, we registered and now we are in the semis. The road to the semis was not a smooth one. We had a lot of complications as we did not know what songs to sing; how to sing them; if the genre we chose was good enough and a lot of other confusion. I am thankful to the entire band, namely: Rufus, Risberg, Hari, Winston and Mark (and now Thanen & Jam) for all the support and encouragement in getting us this far.

We were also very blessed to have a very good Manager in Ms. Brenda James who kept pushing us to greater ambitions. We only started off as a Christian band (in fact, it was just Ruf, Ris and myself). Eventually, we got Mark, then Hari, then Winston, then Jam and now Thanen. We were only playing in church functions and weddings (whenever we were invited to play). I never knew we would ever play at a joint as exclusive as the Attic. It is all blessings from above. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Maestro Llew Marsh, Nazluna (The Best Bartendress in the World), Ms. Juliet Thor (our No.1 fan) and everyone at the Attic for all the support you gave us throughout the journey.

We hope to keep up the quality of the show and we hope and pray we qualify for the finals.

Laughter The Best Medicine....

A good friend of mine sent me these jokes below. Based on a study it is found that laughter cures most illnesses. So, cry less and laugh more.


Losing All Your Friends
Man comes home and finds his wife with his friend in bed. He shoots his friend and kills him. Wife says 'If you behave like this, you will lose ALL your friends.'

Brother Wanted
A small boy wrote to Santa Claus,'send me a brother'....Santa wrote back, 'SEND ME YOUR MOTHER'....

Meaning of WIFE
Husband asks, 'Do you know the meaning of WIFE? It means 'Without Information Fighting Everytime!’ Wife replies, 'No, it means 'With Idiot For Ever'!!!'

Importance Of A Period
Teacher: 'Do you know the importance of a period?'
Kid: 'Yeah, once my sister said she has missed one, my mom fainted, dad got a heart attack & our driver ran away.'

Confident vs Confidential
A young boy asks his Dad, 'What is the difference between confident and confidential?' Dad says, 'You are my son, I'm confident about that. Your friend over there, is also my son, that's confidential! '

Anger Management
Husband: 'When I get mad at you, you never fight back. How do you control your anger?'
Wife: 'I clean the toilet.'
Husband: 'How does that help?'
Wife: 'I use your toothbrush'


Have a great week ahead!

RACISM Is Alive & Kicking....

A dear friend of mine sent me this article with the hope that I will post it. Hell yeah, I would! I read this article with disgust and sadness. I never knew racism still existed the way it does today. You will not understand what I meant above, unless you read the article below. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Brenda James for the article (based on her own experience today) and my sincere sympathies for what you had to go through.

I AM MORE THAN MY COLOUR. AREN'T YOU?

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - A regular day. Work, errands and in my context both of this revolve around the Bangsar locale, which has been my meeting and playground for the last decade. So what makes this day different.

My sister and I were together. We caught up with our meet-and-greets and errands and headed back to Bangsar Village where the car was parked. As we walked to the car, I was having a long conversation with a senior editor from a prominent English daily (who by the way heard the whole exchange take place).

Belinda paid at the autopay machine and as she was driving to the exit boomgate, a very nice BMW started making its way out of its bay and very fast too (by the way, that’s the only place where the word nice will appear in this piece).

Belinda horns at the car and the BMW doesn’t stop; Belinda blared her horns again and the driver reacts in the best way possible – drives out of the bay even faster and then flips us the bird. So that’s what a middle finger looks like, cause it was up in the air long enough for us to have a really good look, lest we missed it eh.

Then, when the driver was certain we didn’t have the right of way, the driver winds down the window and yells these words at us, “F***-off black bitch”. Belinda naturally reacts with a rude gesture of her own but then just as quickly stops when she spots a smaller figure in the back seat. It was a little girl in her kindergarten uniform.

By the way, the person hurling those choice, racist, obscenities at us was the little girl’s mummy.
And the fun doesn’t stop there folks, when Mrs. Foul Mouth reaches the boomgate, we were parallel to her at this point at the other exit post, she yells again, “F*** you black skin(ned) bitch” while gesturing to us by pinching the skin on her forearms and dramatically reenacted how looking at us made her want to puke(trust me she would have made a very bad mime). If anyone had a bad taste in their mouths at that point it was us. She then sped away, with her bewildered child in tow, leaving the scene so fast that by the time we exited (which was just a few seconds later) she was gone.

So to the owner of the black, BMW 5 Series, bearing registration number W** 69, tell me lady, do you kiss your child with that same filthy mouth and will you teach your little girl those words too? Mummy sure is a role model and exemplary one too.

P/s: By the way, to those of you who are wondering what was that lady’s race – don’t wonder. Knowing what race she is doesn’t make a difference. The fact is, in this day and age, racism is alive and kicking.

Brenda James