Redbox Biz Blog

At Redbox Studio, we love Christmas!

We love the songs, we love the spirit and we love the fact that it signals the end of another amazing year for us.

More than that, we absolutely revel in Diana Krall’s silken songs of Christmas and Kenny G’s soulful Christmas sax in the office!

Traditionally, the angel sits on top of the tree. But we have our dear old red robot, the official mascot for Redbox Studio (besides our ‘other’ unofficial mascot, Margaret the fat tabby).

Reddy stands happily on top of our Christmas tree as the lights twinkle and flash below him.

It’s Christmas and the best way to spend it is with your family, friends and pets. Whatever you do (traditional or contemporary) have yourself truly a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas y’all!

Before we forget, thanks to all of you who sent us eclectic Christmas cards too - they’re gaily decorating our Christmas tree!

To the best yuletide season ever,
Nic & Krista & the team at Redbox Studio

What is Malaysian art? How has it changed over the years?

This is what Between Generations - 50 Years Across Modern Art in Malaysia, an art exhibition currently held at USM’s Muzium & Galeri is trying to put across to you and me.

We were there two days ago to visit and see the art pieces on display - one of the perks of having our office in USM.

Organised by USM, Universiti Malaya, Valentine Willie Fine Art & Penjanabebas, the art exhibition showcases some of the famous Malaysian artists of our time such as Ibrahim Hussein (who owns an art gallery in Langkawi), Bayu Utomo, Kow Leng Kiang, Jolly Koh, Latiff Mohideen, Joseph Tan, J. Anu (who used to write an art column in The Star before he left to study art in Australia) and lots more.

What’s interesting is that some of these art pieces are privately owned but make their appearance in this exhibition. And it’s not only painting in acrylic, oil and watercolours. We saw a number of sculpted art and installations, not to mention video art, some taken using the camera of a mobile phone.

In this context, what intrigued me was the fact that colours and medium did reflect changes over the decades. And each piece did have a message - some social, some personal and some oddly disconcerting! Bayu Utomo’s piece on child abuse was highly graphic. Another art piece was a not-so-veiled attack on the Jasin MP of the “close one eye” affair! The Malay madonna with her sombre cat by J.Anu gave off an air of pensiveness and resignation.

I like encouraging my team to look at art because it’s not only therapeutic but it can also challenge us to question what we see and if we agree with the artist’s point of view. It helps us to see too from another perspective. Perspectives are important for anyone in any business. And particularly important for my team when we help clients design good-looking and profitable websites.

So take a trip and visit the exhibition soon because it ends on 31 December. It’s an insight into the minds of Malaysian artists across generations and the issues and concerns of their day.

To your (artistic outing) success,
Nic

One of the best things in life should be receiving emails which bring a warm glow to the heart.

I got just an email today from a good friend, ex-teacher and client of mine, Robert. (I wonder if you remember that we wrote about him sometime earlier this year? We were back in Kuching for Chinese New Year holidays and dropped in on him at UNIMAS.)

We had met him again a few months ago in July when he was in Penang.

Thanks to a twist of fate, we had cancelled our idea of going up to Penang Hill that Sunday because we knew we would not be in time to see Robert off at the Penang airport.

We decided to go and meet Robert, take him for a quick dinner and send him off at the Penang airport - after all, friends are more important than a trip up to Penang Hill! We could go to Penang Hill any time but we wouldn’t be able to meet Robert any time soon if we didn’t make the time.

And he had a packed schedule. (After all, he was a writer, father and lecturer - all rolled into one. He was in Penang to present at a literacy conference, sell his books and network.)

But his email to us yesterday was full of excitement!

He sent news that his new book would be out in 2008 (in addition to his short story “Neighbours” being used in SPM 2008 exams). His new book would be published by MPH but he had kept mum until now to ensure he wasn’t jumping the gun.

“Hi, I just want to thank you for your helpful suggestions when I was in Penang in July. Through a serious of coincidences, or was the law of attraction at work, I networked myself to a new book that will be coming out in 2008 - two books actually (possibly three!) Below is the link to the blog that I just posted (that I had been sitting on for a couple of months to make sure it was a go with MPH — they said yes back in August and now the proofs are on the way. You get mentioned, too, since the blog is on networking. Again, thank you. I felt my short trip to Penang has been a turning point in my life (for a number of reasons), and this book is the direct result of this: http://borneoexpatwriter.blogspot.com

Robert”

Nic and I are truly excited for him because Robert’s one of the most optimistic and honest people we’ve met.

He is an inspiration because he can turn off the TV, he can say no to other activities and more if he wants to write his stories. He’s frighteningly disciplined but if that’s what it takes to become a success, that’s what he’ll do.

Go read his blog post titled “Networking to a New Book” which tells how he ended up with a 3 book deals. Yes, 3 book deals! And with a major book publisher too.

Plus he actually called me his blogging mentor! (*blush *blush) Yes, I am a blog evangelist. I think it’s the best thing ever to have happened to me, to my company and I talk about blogging to everyone I meet.

So go ahead, go read his blog post and find out why he’s pretty pumped up about 2008. If you’re a writer and want to get published, you could learn lots from Robert’s persistence!

Krista

Related posts:
Congrats, Robert!
Visiting Robert in UNIMAS