justin_guber - @ 20six.co.uk

The Black Metal Bullshit Is Back

A couple of months ago I noticed a storm brewing. There I was at my mom's hometown in Batu Gajah during Raya (Eid) when I noticed a copy of local tabloid magazine 'Mastika', the type of tabloid that claims stories of girls who have sex with demons and such. This time, however, I noticed something that hit a lot closer to home. Inside the magazine was approximately 15 to 20 pages devoted to the whole 'black metal' fiasco.

To those not in the know, in mid-2001 Malaysian police and government officials went on a public witchhunt, looking for 'black metal' devotees. They claimed the kids 'wore black t-shirts and sacrificed goats to Satan' whilst playing 'black metal' music. It got so widespread that anyone (I repeat, anyone) wearing a black t-shirt was in danger of being arrested. Even other genres of music weren't safe. It was a bad time, but thankfully it all dissapeared.

Or so I thought.

Looking back, I should have realized from that incredibly stupid and highly ignorant article (which claimed that 'true black metallers eat pork') that the storm was brewing again and the media would once again latch upon us underground music types for a story.

Who'd have thought it would happen on New Years Eve.

On December 31st 2005, at approximately 10.30pm, local music venue 'Paul's Place' was raided by the Brickfield's police under the charges of hosting a black metal gig.

Together with the police were a TV3 camera crew hoping to uncover some evil, satanic black metal congregation. All attendees, band members and random people who were within 10 feet of the premises (and had absolutely nothing to do with the gig) were detained by the police. All equipment (both Paul's and the organizers) were confiscated.

Among those detained together with the attendees and random folk who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time were the band members of Malaysian bands Cassandra, Second Combat, Devilica, Uphold, The Falling Grudge, M.U.Z.E, Net Restraint, Crestfallen, Singaporean band Force Vomit and Japanese band Crystal Lake.

NONE of these bands play anything remotely 'black metal'.

Also detained were David (Paul's partner who was taking care of the gig at the time), the organizers of the show and a lawyer from law firm Edwin Lim &
Suren Advocates and Solicitors.

(Arrest the lawyer. Very clever.)

Paul was (luckily) nowhere near his place as he was playing drums for my band, Triple 6 Poser, in Hartamas. Otherwise he would have probably been arrested too.

After the police were unable to prove any hint of black-metal-ness at the gig, they then tested everyone for drugs (considering most of these people can't even afford a beer what makes the cops think they can get a bag of PCP?) and released those that tested negative (which, if I'm not mistaken was almost everyone).

David, the organizers and the lawyer are still detained and will not be contactable till they stand trial on Tuesday under the charges of hosting an illegal gathering.

The facts:

1. The police had no warrant to enter Paul's Place and make any arrests/confiscate equipment.

2. An illegal gathering consists of more than 500 people. Although reports from sources differ, I'm almost 100% sure the total number of people there did not exceed 300+.

3. A congregation at a private premises can't exactly be called an illegal gathering, now can it? Otherwise open houses on Raya would be illegal.

4. Paul's Place is the only live music venue that is not prejudice to different genres of music and is not a bar. Every other venue in Malaysia has a liqour license, making it illegal for people under 21 to attend/play the gigs. Numerous bands have gotten their chops at Paul's Place (especially my bands. Triple 6 Poser was born and nurtured at Paul's Place). Paul's Place is the one and only place where live music is not connected with the consumption of hard liquor, giving younger musicians a chance to get their music out there and a younger audience the chance to enjoy the music.

5. According to Rafil, who went to the police station together with Ben from Ben's Bitches, one of the younger policeman said, whilst watching this entire fiasco unfold, "if I was off-duty today I'd probably be detained for going to a gig too".

A press conference was held today at Paul's Place. I'll be getting the details soon and posting as I find out more.

2.1.06 09:05

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Black Metal Update

Couple of links to articles of local publications:

1. Ganti Pesta Langkawi: Konsert Lepas Geram Geng Black Metal - The Harian Metro talks out of its ass again.

2. Four held for suspected involvement in Black Metal culture released on bail - The Star. Looks like David and the organizers are finally out of jail.

3. Also, Ricecooker has been keeping tabs on it quite well, so check it out. Click here.

3.1.06 03:35

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The End Is Nigh...

The Scenario:

Today is the 3rd of January. The submission deadline for the Singapore International Film Festival is 15th January, which leaves me with 11 days (don't forget a day to send it) to finish a watchable copy of the movie.

The Good:

1. I have all the UK footage.

2. I have most of the footage I need to cut the movie.

3. Ariff just passed me a copy of this program called 'Swish' which beats the pants off Flash so I guess I can do the animation myself.

4. I've got leave for the whole of next week.

the Bad:

1. My parents just moved to the house next door because our current house is going to be renovated. Hence, no more bedroom. And I still have another scene to do in the bedroom. And the living room. And the front of the house.

2. I'm not even sure whether I can shoot my parents for the movie.

3. I still haven't got a white guy.

The Ugly:

1. I'm broke as sin. Seriously, seriously fucking broke beyond compare.

2. There's no guarantee that the movie will be accepted.

2006. Hooray.

3.1.06 10:56

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Reflection

My team is all but dissapeared, today. I'm the only one in the office. The rest of them have gone out for product training on one of our new clients, leaving me with... well, not much to do. Then again, it's only midday and a host of job reqs could end up on my desk by 6pm.

Sigh... this sure has been an eventful start to 2006. And with all this time on my hands (albeit momentarily), I feel compelled to recap the events of the past few days, starting with:

The Bad: Black Metal Bollocks

The whole black metal issue at Paul's Place is one that's seriously bugging me. I've been following the newspapers as the story unfolds but it looks like the English papers are going to be talking less and less of it (although kudos to them for putting out pretty fair articles) whilst the Malay papers are jumping with joy at the thought that there are more of these black-shirted kids to write about and cause panic in the hearts of parents everywhere.

Like the Harian Metro, who today printed that the gig was not a black metal gig. Although it was on the front page, it was hidden from prominence by headlines about a local artist arrested for drugs and 'ghost candy'.

What the fuck is ghost candy?

Mastika will probably follow this up with their next issue, another tabloid magazine brimming with absolute stupidity.

And whilst the rest of the 'scene' are reacting to police mistreatment and poor reportage, my main worry (and Saiful's too) is a different one:

What's gonna happen to Paul's Place?

This is a venue that helped launch dozens of acts. The only venue in Malaysia that would not discriminate, regardless of genre. Being 'somebody' meant nothing to Paul. You play music? Come play it. That's it. The be all, end all. The man built the place out of his own pocket, for fucks sake. And once the dust settles, will Paul's Place still exist?

What I don't want is a rehash of the black metal incident years ago, leaving the music scene empty for months before someone dares pull off a gig and the whole black metal issue unresolved. And most of all, I don't want Paul's Place to dissapear.

So what does one do? What indeed. I haven't a fucking clue, myself. I've been trying to figure out the angles with Saiful and we're still stuck behind a brick wall.

On top of that, we now need to get our drummer (a different Paul) in Y2k to change his mask, just in case. It's a frickin' devil mask, for fucks sake. The Malay press will go right past the poppy music and go straight for the damn mask.

The Good: Creative Juices

Whilst the whole black metal thing is a serious downer, I do have a couple of things to be happy about. I've finally finished the final mix of the Y2k album, adding a few tweaks here and there from the last mix (a longer intro, a hidden track, a tweak of spacings so that the album flows a bit better). Saiful came to pick it up yesterday to send off to our mastering man. Fingers crossed, y'all.

I also went through the UK footage last night to discover Man Meth' managed to find someone who looks like a young Clive Owen to play Brit gangster Neil in the movie. Every time the dude smiled after a take he looked like a real pretty-boy pleasant chap, but once he has the frown this dude is supremely badass (unfortunately, I don't even know his name). And although there won't be any establishing shots of Big Ben (to explain that the scene is taking place in London for the benefit of idiots who have no other frame of reference) the scenes are unmistakably English. My leave for next week is confirmed, leaving me with the opportunity to edit at normal human hours (although I foresee myself editing 48 hours straight by next Friday).

It also looks like jobs are coming in for my soon-to-be-fulltime video production. On top of the usual weddings (I'll even do weddings. It's money in the bank, is it not?) one of Eddy's friends has approached me to do a music video for him (thanks for the hook-up, Ed!) and, for once, it's not a rock group. This'll be a fun new challenge: a slick, Usher-like R n' B music vid. I wonder how much ass I can get away with?

Add to that the recording studio nearing completion and bands waiting to record, 2006 should turn out to be a good, albeit challenging, year.

I just wish this Black Metal fiasco didn't start up again. I have a good mind to go over to Harian Metro and take a dump on the editors desk. After a bowl of sambal.

4.1.06 05:40

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Arse Bandits From Outer Space

Motherfucker. I think the office is angry at me.

I just found out that I only have one and a half days leave left. One and a bloody half. How am I going to take the week off tomorrow to edit my movie?!

They said because I'm leaving I only have three days leave (one a month for the next three months). One of those days is deducted because there's a day of compulsory leave during Chinese New Year (they can't just give us the day, they have to fucking deduct it) and there's a half day from last year that's been carried forward to this year, leaving me with one and half bloody days.

Motherfuckers.

They said I might be able to pay for my leave. That might work out to as much as a hundred over bucks a day.

I'm not feeling the love right now. I definitely am not. All I want to do is finish my movie, but fate farts in my face once more.

If this movie turns out to be a piece of shit I'm going out on the streets with a machinegun, amuk style.

5.1.06 04:40

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The 'Truth' Behind The Movies

Any of you guys ever been to Metaphilm.com? A ton of reviews searching for the hidden meaning behind movies.
Star Wars is apparently a tale of sexual awakening and impotence,
"X and Y-wing chromosomes blast their way up to fertilize and impregnate the cosmic egg of the Death Star, which as everyone by now has memorized, has a narrow trench with a small hole at the end, in which only a "direct hit" will trigger her."
Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes may be a KKK marketing tool,
"...a group of white humans flee a pack of terrifying apes. The humans are no match for these athletic simians because, to put it frankly, white men can’t jump."
And xXx is a sure sign of the decline of American civilisation (when compared to the patterns of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany),
"Let the record show that the decline and fall of the American empire, whose underlying causes have been brewing for much of its strange history, was set off by the addition of one specific item. We know not only to the year, but also to the month and the day when this item was added—August 9, 2002, when the film XXX—Triple-X—was released."
Serious disection of popular culture or a ruddy good laugh? You decide.

5.1.06 08:18

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The Week of Reckoning

So yeah.

I finally managed to sort out the whole leave thing. They'll take out three (or is two and a half) days off of my pay of my last month with the company, which ain't no biggie, leaving the upcoming week free for my to concentrate on one thing and one thing only:

My frickin' movie.

I'll be honest, though. I'm so fucking tired it's not even funny. I've been sleeping on the hard wooden floor of the new house my parents have moved to for the past four days and it's beginning to take its toll. I can't even think straight, and haven't even booked everybody's time for this weekend which will hopefully be the last ever time we shoot footage for this movie. I already predict my parents' nagging and the evil weather as well as other laws of Murphy to stand in my way, but I'm going to finish this movie by hook or by crook.

The good news is Adrian from KLue called up yesterday. We talked first of my proposed article about Paul's Place and the whole black metal issue and then he asked me about the movie, saying he wants to feature at least a little something about it in the next issue of KLue. This is good news, but it also means I need to finish up a press pack by Monday.

Joy.

I'm seriously considering taking tonight off, sleeping in Taman Tun and watching a movie to relax. I just got me a clear as crystal copy of 'Hustle & Flow' which I definitely intend to see. Otherwise, it'll be Alba ass in 'Into the Blue'. Either one will leave me a happy bunny.

Now, however, I'm sitting out the rain, then probably pop over home for a bit as I haven't seen my parents in a while (even though I stay with them) and either get me a copy of the keys for the house or tell them I'm sleeping in Taman Tun. I just want to clear my head before the upcoming onslaught.

Script-wise, things have changed quite considerably since that very first draft. Scenes have been rewritten, deleted and added as days go by and more and more footage is accumulated. I'm hoping and praying that the movie gets accepted into the Singapore International Film Festival because if not... well... at least there's the KL premiere.

If there's a premiere.

So much to do... so much to do.

I require oral pleasure.

6.1.06 12:00

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Almost Done

Phew. Yesterday we re-shot the opening scene in the character's bedroom, which involved plastering posters all over again, and this time in a bigger room. But this time we stuck the posters all anarchicly and unorderly, which should look better (this was after noticing Brodie's room in Mallrats).

We then tried to shoot the ending scene to find (a) the car we needed for the scene is no longer with us for the day and (b) it started to rain. Add to that the fact that I was completely ad-libbing the scene and this proved to be difficult. I then tried to improvise the scene even more by having it under some shade when voila, the rain stopped. We ran to the location (a bridge near my house) and shot the scene. I'll shoot the car separately and make them all join together with clever editing.

I hope.

Today we shoot the last scene needed for the movie, a few pick-up shots here and there and the car and I'm done. Done done done. Tonight I'll start transferring footage and tomorrow I'll start editing.

My only worry is that my dad wants to see the movie before I send it off. He fears controversy. I'm trying to placate him as much as I can but I don't think it's working. We'll see.

Fingers crossed, people.

8.1.06 04:59

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Getting There... Slowly and Painfully

Motherfucker.

So we finished shooting all the main footage needed on Sunday. Then, as a treat to my girlfriend who's followed me through this entire arduous task, we went to see King Kong (which burnt a hole in my wallet something chronic). Watching it a second time (and watching my girlfriend cry for poor Kong) I was further convinced that the main reason I didn't enjoy it first time 'round is because of the humans. Evil, bastard humans. Also realized something else: the movie's a tragedy about Kong, right? But the pain he goes through is so stylized at times it feels insulting. On the one hand, there's this tragic story of Kong being fucked with, but he's also being fucked with so beautifully, CGI pushed to the fore. Do we sit back and enjoy the carnage or cry at the brutality of it all? Strangely, I enjoyed it a bit more this time. Maybe it's prerequisite that you watch the movie with a girl so that you can watch them cry.

Anyway...

After Kong I decided to transfer footage, which has reached 60GB so far. I may have to delete my porn. The whole process took me till 9am and I still wasn't done. I passed out on my bed and woke up four hours later, a bevy of missed calls and a feeling throughout my body, stomach and brain that can only be described as intensely painful and supremely fucked up. If my girlfriend hadn't come over to take care of me I'd probably still be on that bed right now.

After a visit to the doctors at seven I finally started editing proper and discovered something quite annoying: a high pitched noise throughout one of the scenes. Fuckin' 'ell. I may have to do some foley work and ADR.

But I've edited 6 minutes. And I like them.

...

6 minutes only. I'm fucked.

Today won't have much editing till nightfall, as it is Hari Raya Haji/Qorban/Adha, whichever your preference. For non-Muslims, this is the day where we celebrate that moment (which is also in the bible) when that guy had that dream from God telling him to slaughter his son, so he says, "son, I've gotta kill ya, God said so," and the son said, "it's cool, I trust God" and he turned into a lamb at the last moment. Since then, on this day Muslims throughout the world slaughter a goat/cow/whatever and pass the meat out to everyone, especially the poor and needy. Last year the mosque in my area decided to be a bit of a showboat as some guy paid to ship three camels over. I didn't stick around to see how one goes about slaughtering a camel. Way too much blood to drain.

And now I've got to do up some kind of press pack for KLue. I was supposed to do this yesterday but I was in no state to do anything yesterday.

Scooby-doo.

10.1.06 02:45

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Post-Production Madness

26 minutes done so far. Only.

But it's a good 26 minutes.

For some reason I'm still confident I can finish this movie in time for the submissions for the Singapore International Film Festival.

It must be the madness.

Anyway, since you guys are such avid readers, here's a preview of the website. It's not totally finished yet, some of the links don't work: www.ciplakmovie.tk. Warning: if you have a pop-up blocker, it might not open.

Back to the editing booth...

12.1.06 12:58

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