MalaysiaKU: Celebrating Malaysia Day

Thank you everyone who made it to Bangkung Row of Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar on 16 September 2010.

You folks made the evening awesome! :o)

We saw Azmyl filming at the Subang Jaya SS 18 Pasar Ramadhan a week before raya + we love the song, so we leave you with "That Okay Song"



True.

A lot has been going on around every corner and sometimes it gets to be too much to deal with. What keeps you going when you feel like throwing in the towel and give up?

We were reminded to think about how beautiful the world can be, the sacrifices that people make so that others can feel wanted and loved. Life is worth going on for if we only had a little more happiness and love thrown into the mix. Maybe when we're down, all we need to do is just one thing for someone else, one beautiful, simple thing that might make someone else's day.

That Effing Show boys somehow echoed the same notion, that ...

Hey, it's okay.
We gotta live for a better day. (Hey!)
Now we give a little a love and we're on our way
Kita kaotim everything, parava-illay

Have a great weekend y'all!

xoxo

Rumah Degil

Happy Sunday! :o)

xoxo

Bangkung Row

Turning into Jalan Bangkung, off Jalan Maarof at the Jeumpa D'ramo traffic light junction (a landmark for those familiar with the early days of Bijou Bazaar), just up the road you'll see a row of shophouses perched on your left called Bangkung Row. A hidden jewel, Bangkung Row feels rather secluded, it's like a tucked away sanctuary, albeit just off the busy main road.

Bangkung Row houses a group of restaurants, namely Cava, Opus Bistro, Leonardo's Dining Room & Wine Loft (serves non-halal meat), and their latest addition Four Seas Seafood Grill. During my short interaction with the restaurants, they even lived up to their reputation as having the most obliging and enthusiastic service crew in KL. Well it was only my third visit, yet they surprised me by serving me warm water, when everyone else were served iced water. They remembered that I don't take iced water!

Trivial, but it was just the thing that will seperate them from the rest. Patrons will be impressed with the level of attention that they receive.

A rare gem in Kuala Lumpur, I must say.

Why were we at Bangkung Row?

Yes, yes, getting there. :op

It was actually the Bangkung Row, which mooted the idea for a Malaysia Day Street Festival this Thursday, 16 September 2010. We were only happy to be part of the event, a collaboration with 18 NGOs. There will be Bijou Bazaar vendors on the street with art installations and stage performances. The restaurants will also host mini events by the participating NGOs.

Make a date with us?

Have a great Aidilfitri everyone. :o)

xoxo

Ghost by Ana Raffali

Felt like listening to it today.

Great weekend, everyone. :o)

xoxo

Hujan Panas by Nadiah Hamzah

We so love this project by Nadiah Hamzah!

Nadiah is a Masters of Fine Arts (Film & TV) candidate at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has written and directed more than four short films; and worked as a cinematographer on 10 others.

In 2010, she was awarded a competitive department fellowship, and interned on the upcoming HBO documentary If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise directed by Oscar-nominated director Spike Lee. Her last short film, Sub Rosa (HD/Color/2009) is also currently traveling the festival circuit.

Hujan Panas (Afternoon Rain), her MFA thesis film, is a 20 minute short film that revolves around Zaki, a Malaysian man, whom for the longest time has dreamed about coming to America. He enrolls himself in a business course and finds himself in New York City – and moving into an apartment with two illegal Indonesian immigrants; Ferdy and Mira, in Flushing, Queens.

As he grapples with the harsh reality of living in the city, he finds himself slowly attracted to Mira. She helps him realize the possibilities of starting life anew – possibilities that are threatened by an impending marriage and his awaited return to Malaysia.

Nadiah Hamzah has been living in New York for three years but have never made a Malaysian film set in this city that she's grown to both love and hate. HUJAN PANAS is definitely her passion project before she leaves New York for good at the end of this year! Currently, her producer and she are putting together an amazing cast and crew for a nice, breezy fall shoot come late this September.

This will also be the first immigrant film to feature a Malaysian as the main character, and the whole film will be shot in Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia.

She's currently raising fund for the filming and she's got 12 days to go to meet the US$ 3,500 target. She's collected a pledge of US$2,605 as of today, which will only be cashed if she meets the target within the given deadline.

If you would like to see the film being made, do help spread the word or be a backer through KickStarter.

We wish Nadiah the very best of luck!

xoxo

Bijou peeps' Artwork

It's 31 August 2010, Merdeka Day and we received pleasant surprises on our Facebook wall, which had made us go all warm inside. Two Bijou peeps submitted their rad artwork for Bijou Bazaar. We felt like Nylon magazine for a bit there. :op

Owh ... thanks very much, guys!

The first submission was from Iylia Fahmi. If you remember him, he sang at our acoustic sessions several times last year. Our favourite song of his is "Til the End", the one about Facebook love.

Cute song.

Better YouTube it up people. ;o)

The second submission was from Azeem of Juxta Art.

His story was interesting. He first visited Bijou Bazaar in January '09, when we had our Youth '09 installment. Then an architect, he was so inspired by them peeps in the hall, he quit his job to focus on his art + music.

Yup! A musician too, his band is called JuxtaposeD.

Thanks again, guys. :o)

A quick announcement, folks!

We'll be holding a Bijou Bazaar installment in Jalan Bangkung, which is off Jalan Maarof, Bangsar on 16 September 2010 in conjunction with Malaysia Day Street Festival. A project championed by Bangkung Row restaurants in collaboration with 18 NGOs and Bijou Bazaar.

Make a date with us?

xoxo

Zillmann

Berlin Fashion Week 2010, which was reported as a cracked-out, no-holds-barred fashion spectacle ended last month. Once again, Berlin’s projektGALERIE whips up a batch of stellar fashion-infused events.

projektGALERIE is a showroom, temporary shop, press/PR agency and gallery. It exemplifies tightly concentrated cool that is Berlin. It was through projektGALERIE images that we stumbled upon the rather quirky designs by a young, up and coming fashion designer, Alisa Zillmann. Not surprising given the writer's obsession with hair accessories. Curious about the designer behind the designs, we got in touch with Alisa.

Despite the language barrier, Alisa who just celebrated her birthday last week was easy to get along with. We love her fun, bubbly and childlike cheerfulness. She managed to squeeze in some time to answer our questions, eventhough she's currently tied down with the preparations for her online store to be launched by the end of the month.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm Alisa, a fashion designer based in Berlin. I graduated from Berlin ESMOD School of Fashion in 2005 followed by an internship with Kaviar Gauche. Since, I've worked with Mabelline Jade and projektGALERIE. I'm a fashion stylist for a rather diverse portfolio of fashion labels and actors/actresses. I own a t-shirt label called ZILLE.

I'm currently retailing my designs under the fashion label ZILLMANN in projektGALERIE showroom.

2. Who is your style icon + what do you like about their style?

My personal style icons would definitely be Bridgitte Bardot, Twiggy, Coco Chanel, Gwen Stefani, and some friends. I think that they are just real and brave!

I love women who put an effort to dress up, but with a flair. I just can take the woman seriously, especially those who are authentic.

3. Tell us more about your brand Zillmann + your creation.

ZILLMANN is a fashion label based in Berlin, which is at the moment focused on accessories. The accessories such as exeptional hats and hairbands are primarily made for women, but also intended for extrovert men and boys.

I'm using feathers, rivets and other unusual materials for my fascinators (leather based) and hairbands. Every piece is unique in its own way, because they are handmade. The style is progressive and avant-garde but wearable as well.

Keywords associated with the designs are Native Americans + Pocahontas + Twenties + Thirties + Tomorrow + Birds.

4. What has been the most exciting part/thing to happen since setting up Zillmann?

At the onset, it was a mere experiment of bringing many different materials together to see how they developed into an end product. Since, the requests and interests have been overwhelming.

5. Apart from creating those dramatic hair pieces, what do you do?

I'm also an illustrator and a bartender. You will see them in my fotoshoot. It will also contain personal elements like my first one.

Perhaps I'll be in a band soon too.

6. Who do you want to see wearing your hair pieces?

Cool people with taste.

7. What first made you want to become a designer? What prompted you to set up Zillmann?

I knew, I have to go into arts. I need dramatic and joyful moments in my life but I also need boredom by doing nothing.

I had a lot of jobs in the scene ... I knew its a good time to start ...

8. We understand that your elder brother, Daniel, is the vocalist of the band Straight to the Rabbits. Tell us a bit about him + if his involvement in music has any influence in your design.

And he is also a very good actor and a very good artist.

We're connected by living out our creativity. We've even worked together (I designed their band logo, the embryo bunny) he also wears my hairbands at his concerts.

Luckily, we share a similar style and enjoy our work. Our parents are happy about it.

9. Name your top 5 books, movies, musics + website.

Books:

Haruki Murakami books (I love how he mixes reality and surrealism)

Artists:

Frida Kahlo

Otto Dix

Tamara de Lempicka

and many more

Oh love movies, especially inspiring movies from the 80ies:

Never Ending Story

Back to The Future

Star Wars

Roger Rabbit (I love Jessica Rabbit, I find her inspirational for my art)

and a lot of more

Music:

Florence and The Machine

Gwen Stefani

Kings of Leon

Kate Bush

Janis Joplin

Etta James

music to dance

many more

Of late, I spend a lot of time on my own website and blog:

http://www.alisazillmann.de/

http://eklektikenterprise.blogspot.com/

10. Share with us Berlin's best kept secret(s)?

You'll find the world in Berlin, it's quite a cosmopolitan.

11. Where would we find you on a typical Saturday afternoon?

Typical situation:

My friend Nora and myself, were work in the bar/club called Enklave (cellar room; you actually have to climb through a hole to come in) on Friday nights.

On Saturdays, I'll have a long brunch with my friends, Nora, Nicole and Amelle. While we're sitting in a cafè in Neukölln, we'd accidently bump into my brother and Dennis, Heide and Nico would later appear with their son Toni. The group at brunch would get bigger and we'll need more chairs. Though we are there with hangovers, we'll tell stories (very loud) till we hear more "hello guys" from the other side of the street.

Friends. Chairs. Friends. Chairs.

We'll be making plans for the evening. A lot of possibilities in Berlin. Eating ice cream at "Fräulein Frost" at 11 pm, chilling in one of our parks, dancing in clubs. Just moving between two districts.

But normally, we'd ended up staying in that first cafè, till it's time to go to bed.

12. In 10 years time, where would you want to be?

Still in fashion and arts.

To Bijou peeps, Alisa is currently running a competition on her Facebook group, which ends 31 August 2010.

Just print Zillmann logo, wear it creatively, take a picture to be posted in the Facebook group and collect the most "like" to win. Easy peasy!

Alisa is going to launch her online store at the end of this month, international customers are welcome. Fanpics wearing Zillmann pieces will be published on her website, with their approval (category: walk of family).

Note: the feathers used by Zillmann are from German (not protected) poultries including Turkey, Cock, Hen, Pheasant and Guinea Fowl.