Thanks to a fat bar of soap and his article I've read recently, I'm once again stoked and riled up over a particular slice of music history - when the tunes were much heavier and the band had longer hair then a whole bunch of high school cheerleaders. It was a time when grown men did not sing song about being dumped, hurt or sad, a part of history when bands like the Jonas brothers or the Click Five would get kicked in their nuts for trying to act like something they're obviously not.
Sorry to say this. As much as I appreciate Coldplay, Death Cab and the entire post rock/shoegazing wave, back then, I quote Mr Soapfat - "rock was ROCK and not pussy bands". Rock will never die out. It lives on forever, kicking ass and taking names.
If I still had my long mat rock hair, these would be the 4 songs I'll listen to.
Guns N Roses; November Rain
Slash. Guitar solos in desert. Helicopter shots. Classic.
This is embarrasing, but I air guitar to Slash's solos here.
Iron Maiden; Fear of the Dark
Rock in Rio. Fans singing along. Bruce Davidson.
This gig hits a tie with Muse @ Wembley for 'Concert I Most Wish I Had Attended'
ACDC; For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Title says it all.
Metallica; Master of Puppets (S&M Concert Live)
'Call of Ktulu' + 'Master of Puppets' = Extremely wicked
you know it
You know you're bored when you think about stuff like this. And you can be sure you're nearing the brink of that boredom when you actually bother to write it down. So here we go...
I've a pet terrapin that bites cardboard boxes and follows people around when they clap their hands.
And it can kick most hamsters' asses. Maybe even small chihuahuas.
The Killers is pretty danceable, not in the normal club-dancing way of course.
AC/DC 's new album is quite decent. Sounds like the good ol times.
I get heartbroken every weekend supporting the Gooners.
I prefer Miyazaki to Burton.
Kurt Cobain was murdered by Love and Tupac is still alive.
I'm extremely random at random times.
- 26/12/08
I like to eat prawn noodles and drink teh-o at the circuit road market. Feels like Malaysia or Singapore in the 80s. Not that I'm making comparisons with the Malaysia-now and the Singapore-then.
Its funny to see people shout warnings cheerfully when they spot carpark attendants coming. Especially at circuit road market. Its like the kampong community spirit truimphing over the authorities. And that is always beautiful to watch.
I'll like Arshavin to join Arsenal (preferbly for a low transfer fee). Such similarities, both are Ars-es.
It took me almost a year to buy a plank of wood. The guy took 10mins to cut it for me.
It took me almost 3 years to replace a broken guitar string. The guy took 2mins to change it for me.
I don't understand why Israel doesn't get it hard for defying the UN. In fact, I don't understand the reasons for most of the modern conflicts. They always sound like little kids fighting in a sandbox.
Defoe is a mercenary.
- 9/01/09
I've a pet terrapin that bites cardboard boxes and follows people around when they clap their hands.
And it can kick most hamsters' asses. Maybe even small chihuahuas.
The Killers is pretty danceable, not in the normal club-dancing way of course.
AC/DC 's new album is quite decent. Sounds like the good ol times.
I get heartbroken every weekend supporting the Gooners.
I prefer Miyazaki to Burton.
Kurt Cobain was murdered by Love and Tupac is still alive.
I'm extremely random at random times.
- 26/12/08
I like to eat prawn noodles and drink teh-o at the circuit road market. Feels like Malaysia or Singapore in the 80s. Not that I'm making comparisons with the Malaysia-now and the Singapore-then.
Its funny to see people shout warnings cheerfully when they spot carpark attendants coming. Especially at circuit road market. Its like the kampong community spirit truimphing over the authorities. And that is always beautiful to watch.
I'll like Arshavin to join Arsenal (preferbly for a low transfer fee). Such similarities, both are Ars-es.
It took me almost a year to buy a plank of wood. The guy took 10mins to cut it for me.
It took me almost 3 years to replace a broken guitar string. The guy took 2mins to change it for me.
I don't understand why Israel doesn't get it hard for defying the UN. In fact, I don't understand the reasons for most of the modern conflicts. They always sound like little kids fighting in a sandbox.
Defoe is a mercenary.
- 9/01/09
恭喜你健康
every race has their own stereotypical character traits, be it true or false.
indians are thought to be smelly, have a natural tolerance for alcohol and are ferocious wife beaters.
malays are thought to be lepak and always relaxing in one corner, waiting for their subsidies.
chinese? well the chinese are just a greedy greedy bunch of people.
every chinese new year, we greet each other 恭喜发财 (congratulations, hope you huat ah). the whole idea of chinese new year seems to revolve ridiculously around money. you ask the young punks what they like most, they'll say the hongbaos. woe to the relatives who give only $2, because they will forever be labeled as cheapskate and stingy.
well, i shall not participate in such a celebration of materialism and greed.
you say 恭喜发财, i say 恭喜你健康!
indians are thought to be smelly, have a natural tolerance for alcohol and are ferocious wife beaters.
malays are thought to be lepak and always relaxing in one corner, waiting for their subsidies.
chinese? well the chinese are just a greedy greedy bunch of people.
every chinese new year, we greet each other 恭喜发财 (congratulations, hope you huat ah). the whole idea of chinese new year seems to revolve ridiculously around money. you ask the young punks what they like most, they'll say the hongbaos. woe to the relatives who give only $2, because they will forever be labeled as cheapskate and stingy.
well, i shall not participate in such a celebration of materialism and greed.
you say 恭喜发财, i say 恭喜你健康!
Unconcerned but not Indifferent
Interesting essay on the changing face and roles of photojournalism.
Unconcerned but not Indifferent by Adam Broomberg
"Roland Barthes summed up the analgesic effect of looking at images of horror when he wrote “someone has shuddered for us; reflected for us, judged for us; the photographer has left us nothing - except a simple right of intellectual acquiescence”. Put another way, we look at events in photographs and feel relieved that they’re not happening anywhere near us."
Unconcerned but not Indifferent by Adam Broomberg
"Roland Barthes summed up the analgesic effect of looking at images of horror when he wrote “someone has shuddered for us; reflected for us, judged for us; the photographer has left us nothing - except a simple right of intellectual acquiescence”. Put another way, we look at events in photographs and feel relieved that they’re not happening anywhere near us."
magnum +
i bought a new book, nice.
oh and also,
the new metallica album, not bad.
being unemployed during the holiday season, its downright sad.
whipped
annie & cross processes
seems to me that everything looks better cross processed. the mundane looks ... less mundane and more grungy, edgy and flattering. it's like a quick-fix for any pictures that are neither here nor there.
the good stuff
chanced upon some interesting images.
Elliot Erwitt
Rodney Smith
Unknown
Sally Mann; Candy Cigarette
Unknown
Sally Mann; Candy Cigarette
back (in business)
it certainly feels good to be back in business. it seems like there are so much that can be done, so much that needs doing and so little time for all of it. it's quite a long shot, but i need to give it a go.
on the trip, i've learnt that i do not enjoy taking photographs. i find that the photographs often turn out to be less meaningful than memories, and in the process of actively trying to snap a visual memory, i tend to lose more of the real ones. and to take landscapes, you need the right time of the day, the right light, the right scene (normally without tourists)... it is just too much of a hassle. and if somehow you got yourself, say a lovely picture of taj mahal, so what? its just a beautiful picture... might as well buy a postcard in the first place.
here's an funny excerpt from susan sontag. i must say it's quite a lovely coincidence; i've been wanting to get this book and i found it on my last day in india - on a shelf of a second hand bookstore. here's what she wrote.
"A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter. Unsure of other responses, they take a picture. This gives shape to experience: stop, take a photography, and move on. The method especially appeals to people handicapped by a ruthless work ethnic - Germans, Japanese and Americans. Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun."
bloody funny and i can't stop laughing when i read this. maybe it's just the way we travel that makes no sense to engage in meaningful photography; we rarely have time to develop a proper understanding that is necessary for all good pictures. next time, i think i'll cover less ground. i'll choose somewhere that has something that interests me a great deal, go and take pictures.
on the trip, i've learnt that i do not enjoy taking photographs. i find that the photographs often turn out to be less meaningful than memories, and in the process of actively trying to snap a visual memory, i tend to lose more of the real ones. and to take landscapes, you need the right time of the day, the right light, the right scene (normally without tourists)... it is just too much of a hassle. and if somehow you got yourself, say a lovely picture of taj mahal, so what? its just a beautiful picture... might as well buy a postcard in the first place.
here's an funny excerpt from susan sontag. i must say it's quite a lovely coincidence; i've been wanting to get this book and i found it on my last day in india - on a shelf of a second hand bookstore. here's what she wrote.
"A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter. Unsure of other responses, they take a picture. This gives shape to experience: stop, take a photography, and move on. The method especially appeals to people handicapped by a ruthless work ethnic - Germans, Japanese and Americans. Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun."
bloody funny and i can't stop laughing when i read this. maybe it's just the way we travel that makes no sense to engage in meaningful photography; we rarely have time to develop a proper understanding that is necessary for all good pictures. next time, i think i'll cover less ground. i'll choose somewhere that has something that interests me a great deal, go and take pictures.
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