Thinking back to the chicken shack

I hope I still have the heart for music but it is indeed I didn't go to gigs much recently.  Maybe I only saw three acts this year (!!! how desiccated I become!!!) but they were all fabulous.


Slowdive @ KITEC, Hong Kong 28.07.2014



Since neil halstead decided to grow his beard and called himself mojave 3, it's like he waved goodbye to his teenage years.  Slowdive became a vague reveries that you may sometimes recall it out of the blue, those dreamlike guitar sound, those long gone shoegazing years.  I never thought I could really see their live but yes, miracle happened.  It's great that neil put down his acoustic guitar, united with his old pals and relived his teenage years once in a while.   What impressed me most was that they were able to turn back the time to the 90's hands down.  Rachel was still charming with her angelic murmuring.  It was just like heaven to be drowned in their guitar sirens.  We were all stunned by the beauty of Golden Hair and chuffed to have the Dagger aimed at our heart again.


Spiritualized @ Rotunda 3, Hong Kong 11.08.2014



At first, I thought I could feel the psyche kicks again but, no no no.  We didn't have any psychedelic lighting or visual backdrop, no Electric Mainline, no effect of having substance.  Instead we had gospel choir and a very haggard Jason Pierce.  Having said that I didn't complain about the lack of any psychedelic element - all is because of the beautiful Always Forgetting With You.   I didn't expect to hear the rare track in The Space Project, but thanks to the tender Jason Pierce.  This bittersweet love song is always my soft spot.


The Libertines @ Alexandra Palace, London 26.09.2014
The Libertines @ Alexandra Palace, London 27.09.2014
The Libertines @ Alexandra Palace, London 28.09.2014



This picture makes me think of the words "dance like nobody's watching" (aka 旁若無人)

You know how devastated I was that I could not go to their Hyde Park reunion gig this summer. What?  I was given a second chance?  This time, the always out-of-luck fangirl did get her prayer answered!!!  (and here what the answer was:)
Yes, The Libertines announced to have London gigs in September and I had to go there no matter what.  After the short libertines film, the three magical nights began (and only the first night got the full version of the film, seems like an opening ceremony, I actually did not like the film playing at the gig, too polished and over-produced, libertines are meant to be raw and impromptu.)   We the old ship crews were glad with the songs in the first night, we had songs that thinking back to the chicken shack, with our secrets to keep us warm.  And we all grew sentimental in You're my Waterloo, that's the love song of Peter and Carlos, isn't it?  I think the boys themselves also got a bit emotional too.  The second night was the wildest.  Maybe it's Saturday and it was like the usual libertines gigs, I had to grasp for my place and my survival.  But maybe love among the band or us towards the band was too great, although the crowd was frenzied, they're also friendly, very paradoxical, right? it's like the libertines, they're pure and perverted, we the fans, violent and amicable.  Naughty Peter played a bit Bang Band You're Dead after Fuck Forever and it followed by What Became of the Likely Lads, ... humm..., what an arrangement.  The final night, my highlight was The Ballad of Grimaldi sung by Carl.  It was also a love song of Peter and Carlos (ok, that's the interpretation of me the abnormal fangirl).  it's about how a man kills the thing he loves.  they've killed each other before.  they're now given the second chance (an answer to fangirls' prayer again?)  I hope the story of the libertines will have a happy ending, for these three magical nights did end splendidly.  hopefully, the myth of albion goes on...

念念不忘 必有迴響

F yeah Hong Kong

The Flaming Lips @ Clockenflap 2014, Hong Kong.
Fuck yeah? No. We are feeling fucked.
This year part of my heart already flew to Admiralty so when Mr Wayne told us to have a smile when seeing their performance, I felt a bit guilty and shame.  When there were people fighting for our behalf, I was enjoying myself and singing
"Those evil-natured robots
They're programmed to destroy us
She's gotta be strong to fight them
So she's taking lots of vitamins
'Cause she knows that it'd be tragic
If those evil robots win
I know she can beat them"
There are indeed evil government machines out there, we all hide and shelter while look for others as Yoshimi.  The stage setting was like a fairyland or in a childish dream, with many psychedelic visions as backdrop.  The confetti rain did give me a moment of bliss.    The whole event was perfectly ended by Do You Realize and Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds.  What can I ask for?

Of course what I memorized most was My Little Airport.  Reflective, thought-provoking, french-speaking, kundera and godard quoting and (pretentiously) intellectual, that is the little airport that we love.  They are turning political, yes, and we just love them more.

My Little Airport @ Clockenflap 2014

Cloud Atlas

From day one, we knew that it wouldn't be an easy road.  We are facing one of the most authoritarian regimes of the world and we know just too well of its (dark) history, of how it mercilessly silenced its dissidents and crushed every quest for freedom and justice.  Too many people with stockholm syndrome, too many cops with crime of banality.  It's like we are fighting for the impossible.  It's time we have to choose if we want to be an intact tile or broken jade, if we want to be a pig in a cage on antibiotics or fight as a human in dignity (and we may lose and ...)

"Oh to fight is to defend if it's not now
then tell me when would be the time that you would stand up and be a man
For to lose I could accept but to surrender
I just wept and regretted this moment,
oh that I, I was the fool

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star lights begins
it's all a mystery
And I don't know how a man decides what right for his own life,
it's all a mystery"

This month's favourite

If everything is too depressing, at least I still have good music.

The Jacques - Weekends

Oh, this is the style I like.  

https://soundcloud.com/the-jacques/weekends-3

CC - Bo Ningen                            

I like it just because it has Jehnny Beth.

Tim Wheeler - Vigil

Tim has aged so much, I always thought he's still the cute guy from Ash.  I like the song and the music video, never saw such melancholic firework. 

 

Forever 君はひとりじゃない

These words are for the people of my hometown who were battered by the evil.  The road is hard, but we soldier on.














----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's always sad to read the final chapter of your beloved manga, though it's a happy ending.

I feel ambivalent if Masashi Kishimoto will continue the story.  I don't want to turn Naruto into another Dragonball Z.  I want Naruto and Gaara just stay 16 forever.







------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
of course the hentai me feel so chuffed by looking the above picture, they finally look into each other's eyes with affection, Sasuke finally accept your love, Naruto!

May I say that it was just too Shakespearean

I am still intrigued by the whole Tokyo Ghoul and I must say that I like the bleak ending very much, though people tend to think that it was incomplete (and from the commercial point of view, I think the author will definitely continue the story).

From the beginning, it already foretold that it was a tragedy but later when Kaneki grew strong, we all had a false hope that things would be changed, Kaneki would protect the weak, beat the evil and together with Kōtarō Amon, the young official of CCG (Commissioner of Counter Ghoul), human beings and ghouls may someday find a way to mutually exist in the world. But the world was simply wrong (that's the central theme of the story!!).  We conflict with each other for existence, no matter it was between ghoul and human, between ghouls or even just between human.  How we crave for existence and how miserable in such craving ("I must eat, to eat is to plunder, to protect, to lose, to make mistake").

I love the way it presents the story, which does not draw everything out, not depict the plot explicitly.   The work is quiet poetic - the constant counting of numbers (not just to remain awareness of the pain of existence, but also means the counting of the minutes/seconds of your life), the encounter of the good and the bad Kaneki (the realization of the futility of all your hard struggles) and the final vision of the smile of clown.

Oh yes, clowns.  The mocking of clowns.  I don't understand why the readers turned hating Uta at the end.  He may be unscrupulous but the tragedy of Kaneki is to a very large extend due to his own personality.  The extreme Type 2 Enneagram - to validate his own worth by the extreme self-sacrifice, just like what Toka said, it is a passive manipulation to others.  The unsympathetic words of Uta remind me of Macbeth's famous words:
"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

Uta the unscrupulous/cool prankster (was he?Actually Kaneki would do what he did no matter what)

Love will indeed tear us apart, to eat your best friend.

To love is to put yourself into a vulnerable position, the collapse of Tsukiyama.

Counting of the final moment, delirious yet sober.

The mocking clown.

The Fragility of Openness

可能只有死忠粉絲才會繼續在意吟遊詩人的自溺夢囈，詩歌形式亦方便粉 絲們解構(誤讀)。Albion航道似乎並不明媚，詩人呈現的陰暗面, 近乎懺悔告解 (是真實的Confession of a Child of the Century), 很多很多的自殘、毒品、性愛旅程, what a life on Mars! 不長老的頑童繼續逃避俗務， 在新知舊雨新歡舊愛間捉迷藏，所有的人和事，如詩人所述說般, 只是其生命的一小段歌，不作停留不被捕獲，浪蕩者只會繼續追尋其Shangri-la / acardy。

正要為詩人過著火星人般的例牌 sex ? and rock n' roll 的 rockstar lifestyle 感到納悶時，最後部份的訪問喜見澄澈的Peter， 仍舊是我喜歡的靈魂。 

That killer sulky baby

First, the face (and essentially, the blush).


















Then, the isayama hairdo.


and yes, that is the "cold face, warm heart" heichou I love so much.


come walk with me sulky levi.

The Persistence of Memory

"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

12th March

As usual, on this day I would like to say "Happy Birthday" to Peter Doherty.  I think I am still fond of him, though he is less prolific these days in terms of his music or literature, or maybe he is more private now.  He does not publish his every little work through internet like the old days.  He strikes me that he is more like a showman now, though I have no complaint about it.  I still love his performance and would like to attend his every show.

Happy Birthday little chubby.

But today I also got the sad news that Winifred Lai has passed away.  She was one of the most important local cultural figures to me.  I remember I was a loyal reader of her Amoeba Magazine when I was young. She did teach me a thing or two.  This year I am really sensing that my city is collapsing.   The things we're proud of, such as the rule of law, the freedom of expression, was destroyed in a large extent.  and now a member of the elite is gone.  

so today i am feeling ambivalent, blame it on the grey sky.  but i am still grateful for all those angels who have brightened up my tedious life.