Subterranean Washing Beat

General Science's Running People Band

2010-04-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

Ok so its more like a personal music project more than an actual band.
I've written some tunes, mostly instrumentals, the genres will be around post-rock, math rock, ambient. I've got a few funk ones but I'm not very consistent with that genre. Maybe some psychedelia, I'm more keen on that genre. Basically influenced by all the stuff I've been listening to. Written lyrics for some of them, don't know if the lyrics will spoil it.

I've uploaded 2 new instrumental songs - "Tapping... Test... RUN!" and "Strolling Life". Best listened with a headphone cause it's quite soft. I apologize for that.

Here's the link again: General Science's Running People Band

And for more lively songs, check out my sis's page Halfway Kings

Swining Sunshine

2010-03-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Cracking codfish folding the sky
Swirling dishes holding my eye
Swinging Sunshine feels so very fine
Golden threads shining down from the blue skies

Holding my fingers in a pool of guitar
Soak in the mirror of a marigold flower
All man find their way to a stage
So many riots dropping lemons in blue

Technique of a jumping old man
Living in a conch dripping from the cold sand
Paper reef define a machine
Four weeks a minute ten thousand waltzing grenades

Video tapes are so hard to find
Recently baked a chip full of pie
Joining tigers for a train ride
Yellow and pink bed frames drowning in the sea

Thumbs and an experts paper mache
Craving for some sunflowers seeds
Building pizzas out of a pan
Couldn't find a working bundle of peas

Keys and towels dancing in a straight line
Mobius movement observed in the sky
Swinging Sunshine feels so very fine
Golden threads shining down from the blue sky

http://www.myspace.com/gsrpband

Flu

2010-03-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

Exploration week went pass just like that, not a very productive week to be honest. Only managed to really work on my mix media illustration poster. Its almost finish - I suppose about 20% left. All that's left is a bit more air brushing, and some little touching up. At least there was some significant progess, but only for that subject. It didn't help that I fell sick on Saturday. It was the usual flu bug, where it starts off with a sore throat which develops into a fever, and after the fevers gone, flu. Rested the whole weekend except for last night/morning, cause I had to complete assignments for today (Monday).

Fever was really bad last night when I got back to Sunway. So I decided to sweat it out. Here's what I did: I still had my jeans and polo-t on, so I put on my jacket, took my bass out of the bag and had a short jam session. I usually sweat a lot even when I'm not sick or wearing a jacket when I'm jamming. But the combination of clothing yesterday acted as a catalyst. And it work! Fever gone. Must have looked totally ridiculous, imagine someone rocking it out on stage wearing an over sized National Geographic jacket - not cool.

The thing I realised when you're sick is that even though you feel really tired, you can't sleep. That helped a bit yesterday night, managed to complete my work. Slept at 5.30 woke up at 9 for 9.30 class... that must have shaved off a few year of my life span.

One thing I look forward to when I'm having a fever is the far out dreams I get.
I remember I came across a site on dreaming and stuff, and there was a section where they teach you how to control your dreams while still remaining asleep. The thought of it was frightening yet very tempting. However and I was wondering: what if I wandered off to some spot in my mind where I get stuck and can't wake up? That's too much Sandman and Hellblazer for me.

I always wondered how does TOA get people to audition for whatever event they're organizing. Just today I got to school and saw an audition poster. BUT! When is the event? 19 March. And the audition? 12 March. The thing is they choose to post it up at the shortest notice and at the wrong time. Its EXPLORATION WEEK, everyone who doesn't have replacement classes or need to attend some workshop are at home either doing work, slacking off or staring at a blank piece of paper waiting for inspiration to drop out the sky.

I'm always missing their auditions...

Anyway on a more bittersweet note - the English version of the remakes of Pokemon Silver and Gold are out. The only thing standing in the way is the issue of time. I'll just have to wait for the holidays.

Pokemon FTW!

Born On The Bayou

2010-03-10T08:36:00.001-08:00

Been watching some anime series recently. It started with Samurai Champloo, I actually watched it before, i had a DVD set, but it had totally crap subtitles and I didn't know what was going on most of the time. So I managed to find it online and watched it again. Hip-hop elements in feudal japan - totally hilarious, especially the beat boxing dude and the rapping group carrying planks of woods over their shoulders in place of a boom box haha.

And then I re-watched Witch Hunter Robin too. I think I had the DVD also with totally crap subs - welcome to the sad sad world of buying anime DVDs in Malaysia. Found it online too. And you imagine the huge contrast between these 2 animes. Samurai Champloo action packed, fast paced and a little bit of humour. WHR was more like a detective story very few action scenes, and very lifeless in comparison to Samurai Champloo.

And then I watched Mushishi's anime series. The anime series doesn't deviate much from the original manga, some scenes look like they were just copied right out of the manga. It's like they treated the manga like the story board for the anime. There are only 26 episodes, almost unrelated just like the manga. So it covers until volume 5 of the manga and still not all of the stories. The only novelty of watching the anime is seeing the mushi come to life in the animation. To see they way they move, their colour, the sound they make - its just hard to communicate that in a still black and white picture. One interesting thing to note in the anime is that I realize is that there are a lot of children involved and you can tell through the voice acting that it really is children voicing children characters in the anime and not adults putting on a child's voice. I didn't realize that there were so many children in the story while reading the manga. The pace of the anime is slow, which suits the poetic feel of the story.

Now I'm watching Ayakashi Ayashi... very hard anime name to remember. Couldn't remember if it was Ayashi Ayakashi or the other way round - which is the correct one. This one is more recent and like the ones I've watched so far it only has 26 episodes. It has quite an eclectic mix this anime. Cause it has a period/ historical setting, and also some of the events that take place coincide with real Japanese history. It is a ghost/demon slaying anime, but it is told like a detective story, and most of the youi (thats what demons are named in the anime) are huge and I'm talking Ultraman / Godzilla monster huge huge. So imagine Bleach minus funny dressed people, plus more IQ. The series gimmick or novelty is the main character, Ryuudo Yukiatsu's, ability to extract the power behind the etymology and the meaning of a word. And since Japanese also use Chinese characters in their language, so Chinese characters are essentially pictographs. So sometimes he can extract a weapon from a word which he uses to fight the youi.

Been listening to The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Title of the blog is the name of one of CCR's songs. It's quite a thing to call yourselves "The Band", a bit of vanity involved I think, but heck they have reasons to be. The Band is from Canada, while CCR's American. But both of their genre are blues/folk rock.

I remember reading 20th Century Boys and there were a few 1970's bands mentioned in it. One of them was Creedence Clearwater Revival so I just thought I give it a try.

I've been listening to a lot of post-rock and sometimes it can get very sickening. SO! I've discovered how to listen to post-rock without getting sick and feeling disgusted by its noise and tuneless droning. First, listen to a lot of retro stuff - catchy lively tunes that demand your attention, and make you... happy. Until you get tired of it. Then listen to post-rock, somehow they just sound better like that.

Somehow listening to artist like Chuck Berry, Bealtes and Bobby Day make you tired. I think it's because their songs were essentially dance music, and it tends to be able to grab you attention and somehow make you "dance" even though you're just sitting down doing work while listening to them. Quite useful when its late and I need to go on working. I notice this same effect when it comes to disco and ska too. Because like I said they were essentially dance music. And then post-rock seem to be on the other end of the spectrum, quite depressing and meditative. Attention is paid in a different manner - which is spent on listening to the layers and details of sounds and noise in the song.

Gambler of Sideswiper

2010-02-25T06:54:00.000-08:00

This band is goooood!
Been listening to them for most parts of yesterday and today.

Its like a very happy, hyper-active, post-rock. It has that fun, energetic, lively feel of celtic punk like those by Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys, except that it doesn't have any bag pipes just a very optimistic and uplifting post-rock sound.

And here's an absolutely weird music video for their song Daisy.

On top of that, suddenly I'm listening to Ragnarok Online's BGMs again. RO BGM was a regular on playlist when I was in Secondary school. "Gambler of Highway" is one of my faves - super awesome bass line. Their Christmas songs aren't that bad too and "Theme of Alberta" is a really groovy Caribbean song. And then there's the fan favourite "One Step Closer".

Ambition

2010-02-19T04:55:00.000-08:00

Escaped to KL this Chinese New Year. So no visiting or visits from relatives. I guess they understood anyway. Did a lot of shopping, mostly CDs:
Talking Head - 77
Grand Funk Railroad - E Pluribus Funk
Kasabian - Kasabian
Doves - The Last Broadcast
Spiritualized - Amazing Grace
Whisbone Ash's Collection
Deep Purple's Anthology

Was pretty stoked when I saw Spiritualized's Amazing Grace in Rock Corner. It was a no-brainer. A definite buy. Was pretty glad to be able to get Doves too. Basically just thought I'd want to actually physically own these albums :D

Bought V for Vendetta, and a belt cause one of my jeans is really loose.

Had a week off for the CNY break but cause of the work load that we have I decided to get back to Sunway early to do it. So far knocked down only one and a half out of... 5.

All the print shops are closed for a week. And I need to print some stuff, anyway no rush cause that assignment that I needed to print for is only due on Wednesday.

We're proceeding to the usual poster assignment for our Mix Media Illustration, so I've decided to do a concert poster for Coldplay.

But what I really want to talk about is my childhood dream - I wanted to be a pilot. I guess it was a combination of video games and TV shows.
There was this seriously kick-ass air plane shooter games called Raptor: Call Of Shadows, I remember playing when I was a kid on our super old PC, which still ran on DOS and Windows was a separate application on its own. And I remember you had to "park" the drive before you turned off the PC. Anyway why was it so kick-ass was the amount of weapons you could purchase (if you have the full version that is, which I had on that PC). And the detail on it was amazing, I mean it was just mere pixels!

And then there was this other educational game called Mathcopter. Where you're given a math question and you're suppose to shoot down these floating numbers scattered around. However this one had a flight simulation format.

And then there was Disney's animated series TaleSpin. It was the Baloo (that funky hepcat of a bear from Jungle Book) version of Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers, come to think of it CnDRR was kinda like the A-Teams. I mean even the look and the theme song was kinda similiar. I remember Baloo was a carrier pilot and his plane was an amphibian plane. That series was cool, just that it didn't run as long as CnDRR.

However it was just a childhood fantasy. Fitness was vital to be a pilot and there was no commitment to keep fit, I wasn't a fan of exercise - even as a child. And... yea just mere fantasy. But I remember when we were to fill up forms during Primary school my list of ambitions were: 1)Teacher 2)Drummer
I can't be sure if I wrote "artist" but a certain amount interest was there when I was a kid. There was this one classmate of mine who was really good at drawing. He would draw Rockman and this funny comic strip featuring 2 antromorphic Pigs and a dude ala Crayon Shin Chan style storytelling. Can't remember what the stories were about but I know there was a healthy dose of pooping jokes. Anyway he was really good at drawing, not colouring or painting. Would just sit there with an empty book and nothing but those normal Papermate pens. Wouldn't need to have a pencil outline sketch, just ink work. And he had quite an audience. I think I got him to draw a Rockman comic for me. Think I threw it away. Anyway it was then that I started to draw. Really embarrassing to look at your childhood drawings, but it's still me who drew it and it's part of my life. Still embarrassing to look at my drawings now. Paintings I'm fine.

Makes me wonder if there will be a market for me when I graduate. Tell me to paint and I'm really confident, but to draw or do some visual drawings? Wouldn't dare.

There is the nagging thought of doing music. But I wonder if its just a form of escapism, and if I'll end up spoiling the interest like the situation I'm in now. But changing from an art/design line to music? Out of the boiling pot and into the fire. Being in Malaysia doesn't help.

Please bear with my nonsense

2010-01-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

The mobile phone jumped out of a tuba and started to have a 17 minutes chat with me about connectivity and emotions, then he suggested that we go comb the beach, remembering to bring a stapler in case of we met paper bags. I scratched my foot on a horse shoe buried in the sand. Phone said that I was lucky. I didn't find it funny, so I broke his screen with the horse shoe. A kettle landed on the shore, spilling out pencil shavings that fell on to the sand only to be quickly eaten up by the hungry putty erasers. Phone who lost his sight courtesy of me breaking his screen walks into the sea, a sand castle tries to stop him but to its dismay melts into the sea. Squealing of a putty eraser who caught sand in its tongue makes me turn away, as I turn back to look for phone, he is no longer in sight.

I decided to head south, because I over heard a horse saying that they have green cornflakes there. So I caught the next train bound south. I shared the train cabin with a test pad who said he was tired of words, a fish who was tired of school and a guitar pick who was looking for his one perfect guitar. They served ginger ale and chocolate biscuits for tea. The train came to a halt after 5 hours into the journey - a scooter had fallen onto the track thus the train could no longer proceed. I got off the train, seeing that it didn't matter when I arrived just as long as I did, I decided to walk the rest of the journey. I met a porter who had the same idea as I did, he gave me a 1 inch tall pot as a sign of friendship, and I put it in my pocket. As we walked down the track we had a conversation about faces and rubber balls. We reached a part where the tracks parted. I gave the porter the horse shoe from the beach as a farewell gift and we both parted ways.

I finally reached a town, and immediately searched for a restaurant. And just as the horse on the beach said, the cornflakes were green, and it was the best cornflakes I ever tasted. Then entered this traveling salesmen selling bottles of sand from Jerusalem. Feeling rather impulsive, I decided to get one. The pomegranate having a bacon sandwich the table beside me told me that it was a rip off. But I didn't care.

Having satisfy my appetite for green cornflake, I decided to go for a walk around town. As I was walking down main street, a shop selling coloured rags caught my eye. Upon entering the shop I was greeted by the shop keeper behind the counter. I was quite taken aback by vast number of rags that they had. As I was passing by the "rags hardened by acrylic paint" section, I meet this girl wearing a multi-coloured afro and yellow boots. She laughed at me saying that with my plain attire I stood out like a sore thumb in the shop. I replied saying that she fit right in. She kept quite after that, so I quickly replied that the afro and the boots looked good on her and not many people could pull of the look. The conversation went on and I got to know that her name was Penny and that she came here for the green cornflakes too, but she heard it from a mobile phone.

We decide to look around town together. We pass a stage in the middle of town, a skiffle band was playing and they managed to draw quite a huge crowd. They play a couple of songs, and then leave. I asked her if she knew how to play any instruments, she said she could play a banjo. I told her I could play the drums. A doe overheard our conversation and said that she could sing. We weren't convince, so she gave us a little demo by singing "Let It Be", an accordionist did an improv while she was singing. And we were convince of both their skills. The accordionist lead us to a music store and we managed to rent a drum set and a banjo. We hurried back to the stage and played away, until nightfall. A music producer approached the accordionist and the doe and immediately hired them, and they sped away in a pink coloured bus.

Feeling rather disappointed that we weren't chosen, both of us headed to the railway station with our heads hung low. We bought tickets for the night train. This time we shared the cabin with a paint brush who couldn't wait to paint, a roof tile who was tired of rain and hail, and a fidgety abacus who couldn't stop counting. The abacus then proceed to count how many times I blinked, how often Penny adjusted her afro, how many bristles there were on the paint brush, and the number of indentations on the roof tile, all simultaneously. Penny was humming a very familiar tune, I tired to guest what it was but couldn't figure out the answer. The roof tile figured it out - "Happy Together". After a while the clicking of the abacus, the little rattle of the train that happened every so often, and the hum of the train soon settle into a soothing harmony. My eyelids were getting heavy and I could feel Penny's head on my shoulder, and her afro in my ear. The paint brush was comfortably curled up in the corner and the roof tile was asleep like a log. Except for the abacus who was still counting how many times I blinked and the bristles on the paint brush. Soon I too drifted off to sleep.

When we reached the station it was already morning. I asked Penny if she was interested in breakfast. She kindly declined, gave me hug and thanked me. As a farewell gift I gave her the bottle of Jerusalem sand that I bought from the travelling salesman, and she gave me her multi-coloured afro. Then she got on a carriage pulled by 4 carrots, driven by a doberman and went away. She stuck her head out, her silky black colour hair blowing in the wind, as she waved goodbye.

Donning the multi-coloured afro, I walked back to the beach. Where I met the tuba and the horse. As we sat there at the beach watching putty erasers eat the pencil shavings that fell out of kettles that landed in the shore, sea breeze blowing through my new hairdo, we had a conversation about green cornflakes, skiffle bands, coloured rags, traveling salesmen, record companies, farewell gifts, connectivity, emotions and a girl named Penny.

I might like indie, but I have emo roots.

2010-01-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

I got these for Christmas and it has completely transformed some of the stuff i've been listening to. Suddenly I can hear a part that I totally could not hear in songs that I've been listening to. There's no going back to those tiny ear phones for me!

What is a song?

What is music?
Does it have a form, something we can hold or touch or see?

Been re-listening to Spiritualized - space rock band. Really awesome stuff, imagine this: stoner, space rock, combine with Gospel choirs. It's quite a good/accurate linking. Cause some of the traditional hymns or black Gospel soul songs, have the same type of repetitiveness in space rock and also that colossal "wall of noise" feel especially if there's like those huge organs and a big choir.

And there seems to be no faith-strengthening qualities in their songs, just the all the emotional, spiritual intensity and energy of a Christian worship song. (Maybe that's why they called themselves Spiritualized??) Like in "Lord Can You Here Me" and "Lord Let It Rain on Me".
Also their cynical take on the song "This Little Light of Mine". It's called "This Little Life of Mine".
One line goes like so: "This little life of mine, I'm gonna let it slide, I'm gonna let it burn, I'm getting sick of trying"

And they have also taken all that emotional/spiritual stuff and shifted from God to a lover like in the song "Cool Waves" and "I Think I'm In Love" (both my all time faves). Makes it sound like a love sick or broken hearted song, but then again what song doesn't?

Emo? I guess so, but this is good quality emo.

However they still have some purely space rock and rock song too. All in all, an awesome band from Rugby, England.

And here's another wicked thing: their frontmen Jason Pierce cannot read music. Very hard to believe what with all these complex colossal songs that he's composed.

Manifesto

2010-01-13T01:54:00.000-08:00

It's one week old, and it's black. Friends suggested that I give it a name, but I haven't yet.

Bought it in Guitar Collection, Sunway Pyramid for RM1056, including a 10watt bass amp. Damn fun, there are just some sounds you can't achieve if you're practicing with an acoustic guitar. :D

Brand name? Tanglewood, never heard of it before. Amp's brand is KUSTOM, never heard of it before too. Sounds German.

First trial I had to go through was lugging it all the way back home. The amp's real heavy for it's size, and to think that's the smallest they have. Anyway been practicing on some Beatles songs and Jimi Hendrix Experience songs. Hendrix songs are really fun to play. The drummer and bassist don't get much recognition, but IMHO all three of them in band are good musicians. So here they are: Noel Redding - bass, Mitch Mitchell - drums. Got the tabs from online. I got the fingering right now - finally am able to fret a note with my pinky finger.

Life In Technicolour is one of my favourite Coldplay songs now, that and Strawberry Swing. Honestly I prefer their instrumental version better. I remember being very confused when watching their MV for that song on TV. I said to myself: "That song has lyrics??"
I don't really pay much attention to lyrics, the most I pay attention to is the first verse or first few lines and then the chorus(the first chorus and maybe the last one after the bridge). Cause I'm usually listening to it and doing work. The lyrics are pretty hard to catch what with all that cacophony of instruments and sounds. SO I honestly thought that I was being a shallow, dense music fan to the extend that I didn't realize that the song had lyrics. But a quick wikipedia search helped me ascertain that I wasn't a complete idiot.

The one with lyrics is called Life In Technicolour II and it was released after the instrumetal one on Viva La Vida on their Prospekt March EP.

Erm... this semester has been alright so far. We have some really fun classes.

Mix Media is just a continuation of the illustration type work that we've been doing. Just that now we're using air brush and colour pencils. And later on we're going to be allowed to incorporate whatever medium we want. Time consuming, but all in all still fun.

Digital Illustration, we're learning Corel Painter. Its fun too cause imagine we can use any medium we want without having to deal with the mess of paint stains, spills, smears, and also the cost of buying them.

Creative Workshop, is just a class to make sure that we're not brain dead yet. Encourages more abstract fine art stuff. Just came back from a session where we had to do mini plasticine sculptures blind folded. OK so maybe calling it "just a class" is euphemism and downplaying it's importance. But I really do appreciate the Academy for being... considerate.

And there is the least fun class of them all Advance Advertising Visual... I know that it is good and useful for us, but I don't like it. Why do these type of classes always incite such abhorrence, such hate?

Erm... came up with another new song. What's worrying about doing this is that just after writing it and I go away and I've got the song playing over and over in my head, and then suddenly it hits me that it sounds like so and so song (this usually occurs in the shower or while eating). And I go listen to the song and then realize it doesn't sound like it. Maybe I'm writing or constructing tunes out of my impression of another song. Or is this just plain plagiarism?

Stoning churches with Molotov Cocktail... and now PLAIN ORDINARY STONES at a Sikh Temple?

I remember reading this one article on the issue , very deftly written. Covering the views and reasons of both sides. But really, since God is so AWESOME (in the original context of the word and not the "dude that movie was Awesome" context), will He/She/It stop providing if you don't call Him "Jehovah"? Will He be weakened, and be over thrown by the devil, if in your prayer and worship and newsletters you refer to him as plain-old-ordinary "Tuhan"? (Tuhan = God in BM)

But seriously now a Sikh Temple? These people really need a central planning committee, they need a round table meeting. I don't care where they decide to hold it in - the mamak stalls or kopitiams. And they should write it down in black and white.
1: Use Molotov Cocktails, we need to keep with the times. Stones are so 1st century.

2: Calm yourselves down and aim at the WINDOWS not the WALL. I know they both start with a W in English and "T" in BM (Tingkap for window, Tembok for wall). But Molotov on window and Molotov on wall produces two very distinct effect. Just like water colour: wet on dry, wet on wet, dry on wet - DIFFERENT EFFECTS and DIFFERENT END RESULTS.

3: Know your enemy: What is their religion? What is their denomination? Have you any idea about the vast array of denominations Christianity has? Pick any Christian and ask them if you're a Chrisian and first thing they'll say is say "yes", and then they say "I'm Brethren" or "I'm Methodist", Anglican, Seventh Day Adventist, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Church of God, Presbyterian, Baptist etc. etc. etc.

Target CHURCHES who actually use THE WORD in their worship not just any church. And if they subscribe to the Herald - BM version. No the word can't possibly appear in the Mandarin or Tamil... oh what's that? They only come in English and BM? Alright scrap that thought. But still! Now on to the last bit

4: May I stress the importance of research. Research is vital! Essential! A matter of life and death! Pay or no pay! Success or failure! Employment or unemployment! Pass or fail. And if fail, you have to retake. But there is no retake in throwing a Molotov Cocktail, there is no Ctrl+Z. If your client asks for a colour pencil drawing and you don't know how to do it: research. If they ask for a 70's theme, you can't tell them "I was born in the 90's what do I know about the 70's?" RESEARCH!

Edit: And that would be what the chairman of the Stoning Churches with Molotov Cocktail committee say if he were a designer/illustrator/artist.

Can't sleep so I blog

2010-01-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

It say 3am on my laptop clock. First class of my semester Advance Advertising Visual starts in exactly 6 hrs 30 mins. Dunno why I can't sleep. Maybe it cause of I'm a bit nervous bout the new semester. Haven't done any decent drawing throughout the sem break. All I did was a fake CD album design and wrote some songs. Nothing to do with illustration at all... lovely. Or maybe its cause the thought of getting a bass guitar is making me hyped up. Or maybe it was just the cappuccino shake I had for dinner.

So yes, I wrote some songs. Came up with it while practicing on the guitar. Indie instrumental stuff, I'm not really good with words. So far I've been recording using the microphone from one of my headphones and an acoustic guitar. Sounds very very unrefined and plain. So nothing substantial yet. Gonna get a bass very soon. Would be great if I had someone to help instead of me "taping" over. Have composed (better word than written) a total of 5 songs so far. But only one of then which I recorded seem structured and more complete. Went online to search for metronome. I ended up finding some other useful software, like a guitar tuner, drum machine, ID3 tag editor, and CD design wizard. Best thing is they're all freeware: http://www.nch.com.au/index.html

Read this manga called 20th Century Boys really engrossing read. Its about this bunch of kids who grow up and look back at their childhood. However there's this weird cult going on, and their sect leader seems to know them because he is basing the cult teachings based on the games that they played when they were young. So far only read the first volume. But the story is just enough to get me hooked. Art is pretty good. Not the typical doe-eye anime stuff since it is a seinen. But still good.

Why is it when I'm back home in Seremban. I don't want to be there cause I don't have as much freedom as I have here. But when it comes time to go back to Sunway, I feel guilty?

K I've ran out of things to say. But I'm still wide awake...

BTW if I should form a band I thought of naming it Shoebag. Shoe from "shoegaze", and bag from "baggy". Though can't guarantee that the music will be a blend of these 2 genres. I'm open to suggestions.

1Malaysia, 1Tiket

2009-12-28T05:52:00.000-08:00

Went to Singapore for about a week, family retreat. I say "about a week" cause we crossed over to Bintan for 3 days and 2 nights. Bintan is some little Indonesian island close to Singapore. And it is sort of like a playground for Singaporeans coz one thing is that it is near, secondly they charge things by SingDollar there. Yep. Rip off.

Went to this resort called Bintan Lagoon Resort. Overall it is a good place to go to do - NOTHING. Really, there's nothing much to go, unless you're a golfer. They have a leisure centre where you can rent Wii and stuff, or rent a bike or those terrain buggies or archery or laser tech, but it's in bloody S$ and hotel priced. So like I said it is a place to stone, sit by the beach, read a book, take pics or do sketching.

Beach is nice though but waves too rough for swimming. Could have taken some nice shots there, but hey I'm on holiday and I'm lazy.

So its a 1 hour ferry ride from Singapore. I hurled on the way there cause the waves were killer. The people on the ship said that it was really bad it usually wasn't like that. I was really stoned after we reached. And I remember I was cursing everything, to somehow "reduce" the sea sickness. Don't think it helped but it was fun. Here's how it went: Stupid wave, stupid ferry, stupid gravity, stupid badly dubbed tv programme showing on the telly, stupid tourist who are immune to getting sea sick ... etc etc. Lucky for us the waves on the way back were calm. That and we took anti-motion sickness pills.

Went to visit the National Art Museum and the Singapore Art Museum with my sis while we were back in Singapore. Pretty neat stuff. I look at paintings differently now. Somehow only attracted to the ones that are realistic. That and I stare longer at a painting. They were having a Philipines Art exhibition at the National Art Museum, a lot of the style was social realism type, really good stuff. Very illustrative, not those abstract stuff with splatters and lines and stuff. This is the one time when I regretted not bringing my camera.

And then we went to the Singapore Art Museum, just across the street. This one was more of installation art. There was this one room with a closet in it, and it led down a corridor to another room. Now the entrance of that room - the walls, floor and ceiling were covered with printed out pages of some book. And everything in that room was black and white, safe the lamp that they used which had one of those tungsten bulbs which shone orange light. All the book covers on the shelf and even the label of the Milo tin was printed out in black white. Really cool stuff.

The MRT(Mass Railway Transit I think) is really user friendly. You just need to buy ONE TICKET, yes ONE ticket even if you switch trains. Unlike in KL where if you switch LRT routes you need to get down, go to the other station, get another ticket WITH EXACT CHANGE, and get on the train. As for their MRT, you will still be in the same station even if switch trains.

Maybe Malaysia should consider implementing a one ticket system in their LRTs or KTMs. They can call it the 1Ticket. Since they seem to be very keen in whoring the number 1 in everything from a share (Amanah Saham 1Malaysia), to unity camps (1Malaysia camp (how original)) to restaurants. Seriously I saw a Restoran 1Malaysia while in Kuantan. Still this is one thing I will fully support if they decide to go for it. Lets hope they don't think of 1Tandas (1Toilet).

Yes people 1Malaysia, 1Ticket.

Music Holiday

2009-12-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

Went to Penang for holidays for a week. Stayed at my aunt's house in Sg. Petani for about 5 days, (from last Wednesday to Sunday), then went over to Penang Island to stay on Monday.

Went for Penang Jazz Festival in Bay View Batu Feringhi. Was worth the RM55 ticket. There were 6 bands in total performing that night, but we only watched 5 of them. The memorable one was by this band called Buzz Bros Band from Holland.

THIS SONG IS AWESOME!

Their drummer is just superb, he used only brushes, even with faster songs. And he dished out this super long drum solo, switched between using brushes and using his hands on the snare. Amazing thing is he uses only one crash cymbal, one snare, one kick drum and hi hat. I bought their CD.

There was this oriental Jazz band called Sizhukong, pretty good they use traditional chinese Instruments to play jazz. Trouble is that it kinda loses it's Oriental feel after sometime.

And there was this band called Studnitzsky Trio from Germany. They used some cool dub-like effect on the trumpet. Quite trippy and club-like.

But because it was all very experimental, so sometimes it can be quite boring.

For example this prog-rock/ prog-jazz band called In The Country from Norway. Too experimental, typical post rock ambient/dronning stuff.

And that was Jazz fest for you. Then went over to Penang on Monday like I said. Went roaming the streets of Penang. I've been going to Penang for the past 14(?) years, almost once every year. And we hardly enter Penang town, mainly because of the traffic. It's insane! Narrow streets, so many turnings and so many cars!!! But it was okay, got dropped off by my other aunt (mom's brother's wife... whatever), walked around with my sis. She was busy taking pics, I just took in whatever I saw. Too lazy to take ahaha.

There were a lot of antique shops around. We just ogled at the old records, old camera, old tv, old etc. etc. You get the picture.

Wanted to see the Blue Mansion, but they were a bit strict (more like stuck up). They have this thing called a heritage trail, where you go on this trail guided by a tour guide. So this trail includes the Blue Mansion and it is only available at 11am and 3pm. And it's like RM12 for each person, and they only allow 11-12 people in a go. That's the ONLY way to see the Mansion. So we didn't get to visit the Blue Mansion.

Next day, went to do a little shopping in Gurney Plaza. Bought some shorts because I only had a few. And then went to the Artist Gallery there. They were selling old albums for 19.90 each. Old albums, from late 90s to early 2000s. I picked up Oasis' Heathen Chemistry, 2 American Hi-fi albums and then I thought I put my money on this band called Idlewild (Good stuff!). Scottish indie band got their album called Warning/Promises.

And then went to watch Astro Boy with cousin.
Astro Boy was pretty good, they actually touched on some really good issues, but they didn't further explore them. Issues like how we dispose trash, dependency on technology, and grieving over death. The graphics aren't as good as say Pixar or Dreamwork or ILM but hey - here's a 3D movie that actually has a story (if you exclude Pixar). Still the colours are really vivid and eye catching, especially the panning view of Metro City.

Overall it was a good holiday. Very musical that's for one thing. How so? On the journey to Penang, we were listening to my sister's and my music on the newly installed CD player in the car. In my aunts house, she had this collection of hits from 60's CD, so we listened to that quite a number of times. She also had a Harry Belafonte greatest hits CD. And then there was the Jazz Fest. And then there was that cool offer at Artist Gallery. And then I went to check out the price for a bass guitar in a music shop in Gurney Plaza. I'm spending too much time, effort and money on music. Hope I don't get sick of it... music that is.

If Life Were A Musical

2009-12-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

If life were a musical, things would be much simpler. Everything can and will be solved either by singing or dancing.

Case study 1:
You get stopped by a policeman for speeding. In reality, what you can do is – 1. talk your way out of it, 2. bribe, and 3. just accept defeat, I mean the ticket.

However were life a musical, you could – start singing a cheeky song about speeding, getting a ticket, legal system of the country etc. etc. You start doing an elaborate free style dance routine around you car, gracefully avoiding traffic whilst singing and pulling off a double back flip.

At first the policemen, unamused, gives you a few blank stares. And then what do you know? He’s in the policeforce choir. He retorts and /or joins in the singing with full gusto. And guess what? He’s was an aspiring dancer / gymnast to boot and so he throws away his notebook, puts his arms across your shoulders and both of you tap dances away into the horizon… IN THE RAIN!

Case study 2:
Or lets say you want to court this girl, and you don’t know what to say. Why not sing a Beatles?

You sing an improvised version of it, with different pauses, different tempo, change a few words in the song like “Rita” or “Sadie to the girl's name. And she joins in the singing! Wow two Beatle fans what a couple. And she knows the harmonics, which part is her reply solo and where to sing together. And suddenly out of nowhere a full band starts playing, and the other passer by starts to sing-a-long and dance ala broadway.
And the next thing you know you’re waking up beside the girl of your dream.

But wouldn’t it be funny you decide to choose to sing an indie love song? Its sooo indie till even she doesn’t know it. You have to send her the youtube link before hand for her to get to know the song. Otherwise how would she do the harmonic? The most she can do is the “doo-wob”s if there are “doo-wobs” in the song. But what if she can’t sing or like music to begin with?

Or if the policeman weren’t a choir singer or an aspiring dancer/gymnast.

Philosophical Crap of Talking To Oneself Before You Sleep (to be read seriously even though it's probly bull)

2009-11-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

Those precious little moments between waking and slumber, when night comes and you lay your head down to sleep. When there is essentially little or none visual perception. When only thing before your eyes depending on whether you lie on your back or on your side is either the wall or the person sleeping next to you or the ceiling fan.

The sounds you hear in the darkness be it the ticking of your clock, the rhythm of snoring from the next room, the cool night breeze, the sound of a distance midnight television, or the groaning of cars swerving by on the nearby highway… All that settles down into a subtle drone, easily ignored after floating in its ethereal waves for awhile.

And in the midst of that midnight drone, there you lie comfortably wrapped under your blanket and layers upon layers of shadows that have wandered out in the absence of light.

Under these conditions where you lie awake waiting for sleep to reach you, all you can essentially hear are your very own thoughts.

It is in these moments when you can still grasp hold and twist the images flashing behind the curtains of your eyelids, that you conjure up plays and worlds of your own, where you play those little games of What if’s and Things I will do tomorrow.

And it is in these moments, under the slithering sheets of shadows, you reflect on the day that has passed, and then possibly the week, and the month and the year and then just maybe your life – what are you doing with it, or where you’re going both physically and metaphorically speaking.

It is in these moments that possibly through weariness from a day’s work, where you are perfectly honest with yourselves. Where the problems you might be facing will seem most simple to fix or a very intricate mess, with more dimensions amounting to the problem the longer you ponder on it.

Perhaps this is why people pray right before they lay their heads down to rest. Instead of reflecting their day or life with oneself or another, they seek confidant in a higher being.

Except you might not get a reply anytime soon or a reply at all.

Listerine & Couples

2009-11-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

*Skip to % for music stuff, and @ for the part about couples*

Went out for dinner yesterday, despite it drizzling a bit. But it was fine since the rain stopped. Wouldn't have gone out if I didn't run out of cup noodles.
One stereotypical otaku/hard core gamer characteristic would be locking oneself in the room void of human contact eating cup noodles. I sometimes wonder what's the difference of that and being an art student (can't use the term artist yet... for obvious reasons).

So went to my usual haunt: Min Tien. Some places you can't go alone to eat... for some reason, places like Chola Spice and Face To Face. McD's fine cause they have those loners seats that face Sunway Lagoon. It's as if looking at people enjoying themselves in a water park will help you escape the fact that you're having a meal in McD ALL ALONE. So anyway I ate in Min Tien, ordered my food, finished and left without waiting for my drink cause it was taking so long to arrive.

%
Then went to check out CDs. Spotted Weezer's Raditude, already listened to it, quite some good tracks on it. If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To) is pretty darn catchy. Music video's funny too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A7OruAFESw

Saw Snow Patrol's first compilation album too. There's only one new song on the album. Can't remember the name, cause it didn't strike me as a good song. The singing sounds a lot like the previous songs, just that the music is slightly different - a bit more techno/electronica influence... Snow Patrol is declining... noooo...... Used to listen to nothing but Snow Patrol back in high school days.

Also saw Train's new album Save Me, San Francisco. Checked it out, and it seemed pretty decent. Folky, and soul influence. Hel Soul Sister is quite interesting incorporating a Ukelele. Has that reggae downbeat strumming just like Jason Mraz's extremely overplayed I'm Yours.

Can't seem to find Hujan's latest album Mencari Konklusi. Noticed that they have more incorporated a bit of electronica. Not an album that beats their previous track record, but still all in all a good album. I remember I saw their MV for Mencari Konklusi on an Channel V special. Quality was pretty good, some simple young-couple-eloping storytelling, plus the band in playing in a train.

I got Jack Johnson's Life Album: Jack Johnson En Concert few weeks back. Really awesome stuff, it's refreshing to listen to familiar songs in a different rendition. Realised I knew most of the lyrics of the songs. I was... still am a hard core Jack Johnson fan. I remember among the first few songs that I learnt to play on the bass were Jack Johnson songs - the first being Flake.

Oh BTW the church was broken into and the thieves took off with the bass and electric guitar, and their amps too. Bummer, was gonna highjack the bass back for the holidays. Mess around with it a bit, get fingering right and possibly learn that Flea Tutorial video I downloaded. But alas I guess I have to settle for just the acoustic guitar.

Right super long side track.

So off to restock on cup noodles, and then on the way back I got Listerine - bad breath problem kindly pointed out by my sis and mom.

@
On the way back home, I come to this zebra crossing I had to cross in order to get to the residential area where I stay. Two pairs of couples were already there... Yeah so there were 5 people waiting at for the traffic light to turn red.

I was the only guy.

What went through my head at that time was a mixture of amusement, disappointment, the what-has-the-world-come-to feel, self-assurance, and self pity. While they crossed the road holding hands, I held my umbrella and a plastic bag of cup noodles and another one with listerine.

C'est la vie, my life rocks.

Degenerating language music

2009-11-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

I had to give a short presentation today. This is the 3rd presentation (I think) we had to give this semester. Illustration major doesn’t require much presenting, just a lot of painting and drawing. So naturally my presentation skills has diminished, but I’m really surprised by the degree of the degeneration. It’s not as smooth as it was let’s say: last semester. Yes we had to give one presentation last semester and I could tell that I was more fluent than I am now. One vital reason to this degradation lies in the fact that I speak mandarin most of the time now – amongst classmates, cause most of them are more fluent in mandarin; even lecturers.

I realize that it is unfair for those students who can’t or don’t speak mandarin cause – yes classes are conducted in English, it is expected from a college which has reached significant international recognition. Alright sorry that’s an understatement, winning awards left, right and middle and having graduates working for LUCAS FILMS, and also having twinning programs with overseas colleges IS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION, oh and having Ubisoft come in to hire people.

So these students who can’t speak or understand mandarin come to this college to find lecturers who have a little difficulty communicating in English. And let’s face it: in an art college, relationship between a lecturers and students is different. It is not so dictatorship-like; it’s more like senior artist giving advice to junior artist. So I realise some lecturers are more liberal in giving advices if they communicate in mandarin rather than in English.

By the way Chinese is the race. Mandarin is the language.
Just like Jew is the race and Hebrew is the language.
So we do not speak Chinese.

But still how much does language have to do with communication skill?

It must be really hard for bands to beat their debut albums, whenever bands come up with their new albums, we usually will start to compare them to their debuts. And most of the time we’ll say their debuts were better. And somehow their debuts will be more memorable. But really why do we say that? Is it because we’ve grown tired of their sound? Or have they worn themselves out? Or is it because their earlier songs were simple and now their just trying too hard?

I read on wikipedia that shoegaze, post-rock, experimental music, indie bands with funny names have their roots in psychedelic rock or just psychedelia in general. Interesting.

I read somewhere that post-rock is a dirty word. Honestly? I agree. I follow this blog called www.thesirenssound.com regularly. They “promote” all these unheard off and underground post-rock bands. At first it was good, and then they all started to sound the same. Post-rock is overrated, to be labeled as post-rock is easy but to make significant progress - I think a post-rock band needs to develop a sound that is unique to them. A sound where when someone listens to it they can tell them apart instantaneously.

I think indie is overated too, there are indie bands popping up everywhere like mushroom after the rain. The rain being the internet and the mushroom of course the bands.

But still indie and post-rock (especially post-rock) is highly experimental. I remember my design class lecturer telling us that experimental stuff has a high chance of failing. I’m not sure if he said sucking, but yes I couldn’t agree more. Yet I suppose through all that motherload of experimenting when you succeed, you really soar.

Funny Phone Tales

2009-11-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

My handphone rang and “Pa” (dad) appeared on my screen. I haven’t removed his number from my phone yet. I was a bit spooked yet, I knew it was just my mom using my dad’s phone. Still I was a bit hesitant when I answered the phone, hoping really hard that it wasn’t a man’s voice on the other end. It just so happened that my college was having an early Halloween Celebration. So the mood was set, even though I was actually in my friend’s car when I picked up the phone. Plus I don't celebrate Halloween and we weren't on our way to the "party" in fact going the opposite direction. Anyway it was my mom. She said that my sis made her use my dad’s phone to call me just to see my reaction. She couldn’t stop laughing. As for the fate of my dad’s phone, now my sis is probably using it. His line was a prepaid line, so we just left it as it was.

Monday morning(2nd Nov 2009), while I was on the train, on my way back to Sunway, I got this reminder message from Celcom part of the message was: “Your validity will expire in 5 days”. I had a really good laugh.

Socks

2009-11-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

It became a weekend routine – going through the socks in our shoes cabinets on Sunday mornings to see which socks was mine and which was my dad’s. I continued to do this even after my dad was diagnosed with cancer and didn’t need to wear his socks as frequent as he did, but he still wore them on those Sunday mornings when he was well enough to go to church. I continued to do that even towards the end when his feet started to swell and he couldn’t even walk without help. Now I won’t need to sort out the socks, ‘cause where he is now he won’t be needing socks, or even shoes to protect his feet for that matter. Hurt, pain, sorrow, doesn’t exist there.

I remember watching Big Fish and thinking to myself that: this is how dad’s funeral is gonna be like (minus the weird characters and tall tales being uncovered though). I might not have known him well; I might not have known the details of his life. But looking at all the people that came to see him off: there were relatives, old classmates, his teachers, his fellow teachers, his students and of course people from different churches – every one of these people constituted one part of his life, and in a sort of abstract way of looking at it - I was looking at his life. Ironic isn’t it? Being able to “see” his life only at his funeral.

When I was young (around 5-7) I remember dragging my feet up at 6am, brushing my teeth, then gathering in my parents bedroom to read the Bible together. Back then we were young (me and my sis), it was the beginning few years of our lives. 12 years down the road, there we were again as a family, reading the Bible and praying for my dad. But this time it was near the end of his, but we were still praying and hoping that it wasn’t. I wasn’t there when my dad passed away. My mom said she was glad I wasn’t. It wasn’t a pleasant scene and I guess a scene where it was not so easy to forget. I guess that's why I didn't cry as much.

My dad was a righteous man – no cutting corners, no BS, no smoking, no drinking, no swearing. But he wasn’t the type to impose things on you, he wasn’t a perfectionist. He’s not the anal policeman who insists that you follow the law. He just did it, without saying much and it made you think “why the heck not?”

My dad’s not the talkative type, I guess I inherited that part too. So it’s hard to talk to him, harder than my mom that’s for sure. Can’t joke with him cause he might not get it. But still I could always go to him for help.

I’ll never fit my dad’s shoes. He’s a size 9, I’m 10 to 11-ish.

Stand Up Comedians: the Speakers of the Ugly Truth

2009-09-23T07:58:00.001-07:00

I had this question thrown to me by this friend of mine: Tim do you follow or watch any comedians?

I was taken aback by this question, I just didn't know how to answer this question. It's a first time that I've ever been thrown such a question . I mean the way she said it made them sound like a TV series or an artist/ band or an informative blog or website of sort. Or worst still a preacher or motivational speaker. But somehow that's the way they are don't you think? What they say is first of all hilarious, but still they are the truth, or the ugly truth. People go to their shows to get tickled and to listen to "The Truth". It's like a cult you know? "Oh I believe in the doctrine of George Carlin."

Anyway she was telling me to watch Eddie Izzard. Why? 'Cause he's funny and he's a Brit. Yeah sure he's funny but I guess it's that accent that is the real selling point. Makes a normal sentence sound funnier, add in foreign adjectives like bloody, bollocks or bugger it (wow 3B's) and it's an instance win formula. I don't think people watch him cause he's a cross dresser, although I can't rule that out, I guess it's just a side bonus then. Look at the Beatles: they produced great music, had funny hairdo and spoke funny. And look at where that got them? They're legendary. Heck since we're at it: let's throw in The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Queen, Radiohead, Oasis, Coldplay.

Rock Band: The Beatles, looks awesome. I won't be getting a PS3 or any of this generation gaming consoles, so I'll just have to make do with drooling at gameplay videos.

Alright I'm out of things to blog about. Check this out:

Going to bum about watching Eddie Izzard and.. stuff. Then tomorrow is a full day of working on the acrylic painting.

Oh and finally: I salute Eddie Izzard for running around on stage while dishing out jokes in heels.

Hullo all.

2009-09-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is my 3rd blog. I think I had one on myspace, one on friendster (both short-lived) and I guess the journal on deviant art shouldn't count cause it won't appear on search engines and stuff, on top of that people go to deviant to see art and not read some guy's journal. BTW I canceled my friendster account. myspace - can't remember password and ID for that matter.

As this is my first blog on this site I feel pressured to say something smart ................................................. forget it no idea.

Just posting this here to fill up the empty space, and also to see how the layout looks like.