Yes it's all within expectation

Yes, Pete didn't turn up in Love Music Hate Racism as he was arrested just in the morning, nothing to say. Should I just blame him like every parents or just blind just like every sycophants/groupies/idiotic fangirls/fanboys... Anyway, pete said that it was not an injection, it's just taking some blood out to make art?! i want to give him the benefit of doubt (so i'm the idiotic fangirl).

LMHR without pete was still good, it's a sunny day (but still very chilling). Drew appeared alone to sing Albion, good lad.



Belle and Sebastian was absolutely fabulous, they sang the boy with arab strap!!! blue is still blue, another rainy day, white collar boy, like dylan in the movie, wow, was i in the dream? No babyshambles, but belle and sebastian made up all the loss!



Trafalgar is good indeed, no doubt so many people talked about them in the nasty org.

Another Rainy Day

"Another rainy day, we’re trapped inside with a train set"

Another deja vu.
listened to belle and sebastian this morning, cloudy, rainy, walking in delirium, thinking I was still in london... actually i don't memorize london as cloudy and rainy. my days were always sunny there but it's strange whenever there is grey sky and drizzle, i think of uk, especially london, nostalgic me.

what if i board the good ship albion tonight..
(hope sunny day tomorrow for belle & sebastian and ... babyshambles, if peter bothers...)

Bookcrossing

Have to clear up the pile of old newspaper cutting on my table today and in the course of being such paranoid android, I found an article in Hong Kong Economic Journal (author:馬家輝) about Bookcrossing. Wow, this idea is what I need. I just have headache about the books piling up in my small matchbox home. It's the best way to "dispose" of them (but the word "dispose" is too rude to apply to books). It is also very romantic to let your book float around the world, from places to places, from generation to generation. Isn't it like a mystic thread connecting you with a stranger? You don't know each other but you read the exact same book, share the same vision or just have different notions? What became to the first owner?

I immediately registered myself to the website and will let some of my books float around Hong Kong this week. This is like message in a bottle, you'll never know where it will end to. (but since this is Hong Kong, I think most of my books will end up in trash bin and I will probably be complained by others as litter bug)


Bookcrossing.com
Chinese Bookcrossing 1
Chinese Bookcrossing 2

My sweet melancholy - Sigur Ros Live in Hong Kong 7 April 2006

Absolutely lost in the sheer beauty.

Or is it strange for me to find melancholy so uplifting?



Opened by Glosoli, the show was a series of angelic conversation. My mind wandered with the bleeding crimson, dived deep in the quiet ocean, lost in the forest, drowned in the memory of childhood, bathed in the tendered sunlight, poetry or music? Who needs to distinguish?



Never understand any "Hopelandic", never even remember the exact title of songs. It all doesn't matter. You are free to interpret. I couldn't help shedding tears in face of such breathtaking beauty and strength. From tranquility to hysteria, I was stunned in the uncontrolled emotions and hallucinations. Was it a fall from grace of every human being - from Paradise to the East of Eden?


Jonsi played his guitar with a cello bow



All other joys to this are folly
None so sweet as melancholy.

Hong Kong Music Fair 21 - 23 March 2006

Splendid emptiness. Things were not that bad on the first day as most of the management staff as well as the small potatos like me of the organisers and exhibitors were present. After the photo-sessions, everything died down. So, was it an event for the industry only or for the general public? Actually I don't know. It might be opened to public but the only people walked around were mainly those from the exhibitors.

There was an exhibition of various memorabilia of the development of music industry in China and Hong Kong for the past 100 years (and that's the most interesting part of the whole event, but then again, the scale was too small).


L-O-V-E The Winners' costume



Inside the venue,I can't quite get the theme of the event. There were just a bundle of record labels listing out their "artists" (so what for?) and mobile operators showing their new handset models (no difference from any mobile outlets on the street). If I went to this event as a public member, I would not find it much interesting. However, it's a different story if you were looking for souvenirs. My favourite one is the Rolling Stones accessories and a CD of Sony/ATV publishing sampler. I really want to get the Bob Dylan and Boney M albums after listening, so maybe they succeeded in promoting their stuff.

Thanks to the marshmellow kisses which I listened the whole day long (me a very idle boothkeeper), my booth was to promote local independent musicians so there was seldom anyone dropped by :(


the marshmellow kisses restes avec moi

The channel launch party this morning

How I survive
with my awkward posture
and dangling mind
Sipping tea
sulky me
Business party
with plastic people (sadly I'm one of these)
Can anybody explain the meaning behind this?


Today morning I rushed to a party - yes a morning party, huh-ha
watching how people exchanged their name cards fanatically
and tried hard to cling to any conversation
(though they knew they hardly had anything to say)
This is something (they called it "social skill") I shall never know
To me, it is definitely a total waste of time.

明明是

The Little Prince? our lady of flowers? Reincarnation of Ziggy Stardust?



Actually, there was not much surprise in the gig, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining (how could I). It's just because of marginal utility that I feel there were too many cross-over shows with HKPO all of a sudden, or maybe the grandeur sci-fi poster made me have higher expection or, Anthony was simply not good at 搞氣氛 (hey, com'on, he's an artist, not an entertainer). I know I'm too critical to my teenage idol. Apart from that, I still enjoy the show, especially the part of Bittersweet Symphony.





Visually of course Anthony would never let me down. I love his Time-honoured campness and coyness, the scene of bloodshed on the snow white and crucifixion.


A set of numbers ... and events.

^^

Many happy returns.

Brainwash

I was forced to look at these pictures for a month already! OK, the girl looks alright but that's my notice board (and I don't like to look at the nostrils of anybody). It's so brainwashing! I want to pin up my own "collector items" but of course I can't. The tyrannous boss forces me to pin up whatever he likes (and his taste is horrible, these 2 pictures are sort of OK among his choice).

Yes Right Click is the campaign started by my company (doubt if any public ever take notice of it). It promotes the legal download of music, yeah, more right-click, more royalties to music composers and writers (how righteous I am, ha), more year-end bonus!

Sigur Rós live in HK? I'm so yesterday

Yes, I'm so yesterday, I've only received the news today - Sigur Rós live in HK (7 April 2006), is it true? I still can't believe it.

Yes, I'm so yesterday cos' I still live in yesterday. The first time I saw Sigur Rós was 5 years ago, the time when I studied in UK. They were supporting Radiohead in Newport. I remember I had to rush back London after the gig as there was an examination the day after. Their performance was absolutely mind-blowing. I didn't know them much at that time so I didn't expect such wonderful experience.

How time flies! 5 years have passed! (I've aged 5 years!!!) I know there's no more yesterday now. I was called as weirdo and "gwei-pau" by ex-colleagues, I was very introvert (no, they didn't know in fact I'm a bit schizo), a freak liked to eat baked bean and spread on bread (they didn't know it used to be my usual meal). No more weirdo now, I'm eventually localized - glad to watch TVB series every night (how a soul degenerates!)

The Conformist

Office activities - the ones you want to avoid but you can't cos' you have to. I am the wage-slave. I am chained, shackled, caged in the big white cube. Shameful! Especially for the one who claims to be nihilist and anarchist (haha). Sometimes such compulsory activities are not that bad if they are referred to the activities carried out in last Saturday. Me and the crowd went to the memorial of the Patriotic Man (which is located near my home but thanks to the excellent taxi driver, I had a chance to travel to Yuen Long first and then back to Sheung Shui with the bill of HK$200). I quite like the scenery there, remote and a bit ruined.




The most handsome guy in the mentioned office activity. He is definitely cute!

The return of laddishness

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys

Raw and spunky, gritty voice, songs about pub going, drunkedness, trouble with police, trouble with girls, absolutely no ramblings of dreamy poetic reverie, no androgeneous image, no homoerotic element. This is a 100% laddish album. This is a 100% hyped up band. Don't get me wrong, I don't hold anything against the lads. In fact I quite enjoy their classics "I Bet You Look Good ..", "Fake Tales of San Francisco", "Mardy Bum" and "A Certain Romance". But just like what they said, "Anitcipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment..." To rank this album as one of the Top 5 of All Time Most Important Albums is a bit too much. Will Alex Turner be clever enough to see that media is also one the Vampires as in their song "I don't want your advice or your praise .. cause all you people are vampires and all your stories are stale" (Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But ..)? Like the title of the album, I hope in their 2nd album they'll have something more behind their sheer laddishness.

Side issue: how many Libertines-related reference in the whole album?(no, not necessarily related to the Libs, just me as an over-sensitive freak and think Alex as an ex-Libs fan should write something about)- "trilbys", "truncheons" "classic Reeboks knackered Converse", "boy in bands" and actually the song A Certain Romance even reminds me of the whole rise of (and now fallen already) the London music scene after the Libs.

Natural High

Alex stood on the drums set

Blimey! 3 drums players!

Yes, the photos already show that my seat was at the "peak"

What a brilliant night! My toes are still aching because of such dancing night. I always thought the songs of Franz Ferdinand were too calculated, too perfect indie pop rock (ha, are they indie?) but I must say tonight gig was absolutely wicked, feel like just having dozens of shiva!!!

Used to be a sweet boy

Used to be a sweet boy
Holding so tightly
To Daddy's hand
But that was all
In some distant land
Blazer and tie
And a big bright healthy smile
Used to make all
Of our trials worthwhile


bilo, no more eating in the midnight, please?

He will fall

Some say he's cute
Some say he's too indiscreet.


He was arrested again.

Sweet melon

Sweet maiden sips the tea and shows me her melon
shoelace fastened she no longer affords a free fall stumble
for a very long time.
Sit up, heave up, straighten up
your joy I shall never fathom
glancing the paper in the corner
"Clap hands and say yeah"
For your courage and commitment.

I've just been informed by my friend that she was pregnant. Brave girl. She's a bit mental, ...hmm, but I think she will be a good mother (because she is a cancer girl).

What the heck!

It's pathetic that my boss said my behaviour is like that of 臘筆小新 today, though I really like this cartoon character. It's strange, I never talk foul, never twist bum, of course have nothing to do with that little bb like 小新. Maybe that's becasue of my childish talk/thought. One thing for sure, I should never enter the field of legal robot, for being a legal robot, you are supposed to be professional, sophistiscated and confident (may I call it pretentious and bluffing). Somehow, I do enjoy the nature of work as I'm a drafting machine. But no, to be a successful legal robot, you are not necessarily good in language and analysis, but you have to good in presentation. Anyway, too much rolling n' rocking in my blood, I'm condemned to be 臘筆小新!

First Impression of the new strokes

The Strokes - First Impression of Earth

First impression is mostly unreliable. I knew this 3rd album of The Strokes would sound different. I've made the necessary mental preparation. However, on the first listening, I still couldn't quite shift myself away from the Is This It?/Room on Fire expectation, so I just found it sort of OK. Things began to change after the 2nd and 3rd listen. The more I listen by now, the more I'm hooked to this album. The length of each track is double or even triple of their previous songs but somehow the songs are cleverly structured. Emotion of the songs are built to explode at last ("Juicebox", "Vision of Division", "Ize of the World"). The first song "You Only Live Once" is the only song which sounds like the old Strokes, very catchy. Julian's voice was obviously affected much by his over consumption of alcohol (so some may say his voice is horribly scratchy). I think it quite matches with the heavy music and lyrics. I can't understand why people keep complaining of the obscurity of The Strokes' lyrics. It is very explicitly dark. It's strange for a newly married man to write such dark lyrics. Julian was (is?) like a man on the verge of nervous breakdown. My favourite tracks are Heart In A Cage, Vision of Division, Ask Me Anything (there's no guitar, just melatron, wow), 15 Minutes, Ize of the World, Evening Sun and the last one (well, almost all the songs). This album is clearly not everyone's cup of tea like Is This It?, but it's definitely one of my favourite in 2006.

cliche no.2

I once mentioned to Secret J to have my own so-called best of xxx 2005 chart but u know it's so cliche and more importantly, it's already the 2nd week of 2006, it's so bloody delayed. The problem in composing such My Most Favourite albums of 2005 is that I haven't bought many cds in 2005. It's so strange. When I was much younger, I bought loads of cd albeit my financial strait. Maybe that's because I'm older now (my heart, colder). No!!! Anyway, I intended to complete this cliche, so I will say:
My most favourite cds in 2005 are:
1. The Rakes - Capture/Release
2. Babyshambles - Down In Albion
3. Black Wire - Black Wire

The Rakes are not "just another hyped-up indie boys band". Capture/Release is intense and bleak. Their lyrics relate much to my suicidal working/office life, I like it. It also reminds me of my horrowshow experience in Amsterdam, the sound of this album turned into something African, you know the state I was in.

Down In Albion. What can I say. Most of the tracks are "taken" from the Babyshambles Sessions (without any credit to Carlos)! Listening to those beautiful songs in Babyshambles Sessions were being twisted! I know Pete tried hard to turn a new page of his life, forming a new band with different style. I know I am biased. I can never be fair to Babyshambles. The new Stix & Stones is just boring. Having said that, I like the new version of killamangiro and albion. Of course I can't resist the anthemic Fuck Forever.

I also like The Cribs' The New Fellas when I downloaded it, but it's become boring when I bought the official copy (so the lesson is: don't buy official release, ha!)

cliche

It's still the first week of 2006 so it is not too late for me write something about new year resolution. Looking back, (surprisingly) I've fulfilled much of the new year resolution of 2005, they are:
1. To find a new job
2. To read more books
3. To save more money without reducing my enjoyment of life

"I was looking for a job and I found a job", ha, don't sing the following line, I really don't want to be as unluck as Morrissey. So, I've changed the job and Madam To Ming just asked the same old question today. What can I say? Am I the ever-whining soul? Am I lacking the essential working spirit and capacity? Or it is true that this job nature is not so suitable for me? (Yes. The firm name having "music" element is actually nothing to do with music!!!) New year resolution of 2006, well, yes, still
3. To read more book,
2. To save money without reducing any fun of life
1. change job? I feel confused.

Other resolution:
Pick up guitar (oops, I hardly remember how to play it)
Update my web (yeah, inspiration, where have u gone?)

Happy New Year!

Let there be love, mates!

Pissed off baby

Current mood (or I should say "constant mood") :



Always want to:



It was a nice surprise when I went to see Rent in HKAPA, I was told by my cousin that there was an exhibition of Yoshitmoto Nara in the hong kong arts centre. I love nara's little violent baby. She is so innocently evil, always pissed off, despise everything. She is like my subconscious ego, only I don't have the guts to show my real feeling and have to put on the bloody smiley face (so fake, little violent baby despises it!!! No, I don't want to .... This self-conversation turns me into nervous breakdown >_<) Talk about Rent, Karen Mok was surely a flaw, organiser should bring the whole new york team rather than let a HK star to ruin the production. "La vie boheme" Making something out of nothing The need to express To communicate, To going against the grain, Going insane Going mad To loving tension, no pension To more than one dimension, To starving for attention, Hating convention, hating pretension (sadly this bunch of boheme either died of aids or no money to pay any rent, no no no, me as a (wanna be) beheme don't believe it)


The Pao Gallery

Everything goes but the feeling

Email him, wish him happy and healthy. My mind goes with the shambolic baby in every christmas until the death of me/him.

I won the so-called big prize in office Christmas party - a very big vase, actually no use for me.

Wired

Wow, what are they?



Yes, the wires that make me wild (haha, no, I'm not wild at all)
This device look so strange, like a monster crawling on my head, or it looks like some kind of ancient equipment for torture. Ha, I know I'm having too much hallucination.


It's quite torturing indeed, I couldn't move and I had headache the day after.

Cool place

Today's special

Two writing in a day?! cos today is special. Today is the office gathering, i.e. dinner tonight together with mahjong playing and karaoke. I'm not keen on those two items, what shall I do? Can I just disappear without anyone's notice?
And today is appraisal day. Result: Pass

Lennon Remembrance

He's witty
a non-conformist
humanist
good/bad/father/husband
once a hippie
always naughty
and a walrus
He left us the idea to fight for a better world
and he left on this date 25 years ago

Picture of you

Dear Mr Barat,

Must show you and your pretty missus this picture if I can see you again in UK (hope you still hang around Trash even if Dirty Pretty Things becomes big and famous). Thank you for bestowing your beauty and charm upon my grey working life. It's wonderful to know I can always see the pretty boy just round the corner.


J. Linderberg, The Landmark, Central

It is very boring indeed

As per the request from several "concerned parties", I now show you the pictures of my office, i.e. the confinement which I'm condemned to.


It looks messy, though not many documents, cos' I'm messy, shambolic, kittyshambles yeah!


Look, there is a newspaper hanging on the notice board by my boss before I came here (the date is 29 July 2005). The newspaper is already yellowed but I still haven't put it down, I'm just too lazy and do not have any attempt to try to decorate this cubicle. Let it yellow, even brown, and decay. In fact this notice board is good for pinning up some of my idols, but I don't want to bring any of my favourite items to office. They will be contaminated. No bearbrick. No Libertines. Don't make yourself at home in office. Don't grow your root in office. Office should be boring. You should just work work work (or dream, go internet, phone friends) in the office. Time's up, go!
By the way, I hate these big windows (no, they're not windows, they can't be opened, just the transparent squares) on the partition wall. All people can see if I fall asleep or go internet!!!


Boss' room (with big window) behind me. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING ME!!

I was robbed of liberty for 5 hours

So, it was not a century long, though it's still a bit long. I mean the cocktail + grand dinner I was made to attend compulsorily. At first I was worried if it would be another awful and embarrassing experience for me because I hardly know who I am. Sometimes I felt like socialize but many more times I was just a sulky social inept, oh my, it might just be another event to strengthen my sense of alienation. Thanks God I acted (or I think I acted) like a normal decent person, smiled and welcomed strangers. The socialize self was aptly present while much effort was made to suppress the autistic child within me and paralyse the bad kitty who asked for stout and joint everywhere. Good to see Eason Chan, best male singer in Hong Kong (and also nice to see Alan Tam, I liked him when I was much younger ^^).

Peeped through the window, what did you see?

I saw tilted floor, marble pillars and golden banister. I saw formalities, but I don't hate such formalities, which is strange, as I am the one who detest all kind of chains and pretention. Maybe I do miss the old Hong Kong which exists in my memory or imagination. Maybe I did enjoy sneaking out of office in the name of attending panal meeting. People argued for the sake of arguing, some had points, some hadn't. Jotting down notes for idle meeting, not bad for a Tuesday afternoon.



Legislative Council, a beautiful colonial building

Attack! Attack! Attack!

Flu Attack! Help!!!
Need to sleep early tonight (though it's already 12:30am, still early for me). Need some good hot spicy Thai food to wake up my senses. Need beer to cool down. Need whisky to warm up. Need Lemsip (yeah, "Lemsip is the best", paul the poet said. We must believe in poet).
Hope I feel better tomorrow.

Ranting, ramblings I

What is the point of online diary? Does anyone write the most secret personal stuff like the real diary? Or they just put some fake information? Pages of bluff or lies? Probably just pages of ramblings. An internal urge just to satisfy yourself and no one else. Like Haruki Murakami once said, writing is like sweeping away the snow accumulated outside your door - an internal urge, to clear the thought. No need for any readers.

I told the screen that I knew you're the computer so I could write whatever I wanted and told you the truth. Truth is sometimes hard to find, evaded, hidden, confused, contaminated by so many people, but I found out a fact - dug out the truth today, like shelock holmes. They try to shift the blame on kittyshambles (for she is the speechless, defenceless long-gone history). Being the constantly insecure and diffident nobody, she even doubt herself and thought if she ever committed such mistake like they said. No no no. 26 Aug is what I need to know. Kittyshambles no need to worry. She knows the picture now. Those fuckers ....

Mellow swallow

Nobody knows if they are real russians or not. What do you feel if you have to sing in front of a bunch of gluttons, who probably do not understand/care what you are singing about? Behind those catchy traditional Russian folk songs, there is some kind of alienation. Mine or theirs? Pretty vacant, pretty strained.

Balalaika, Lan Kwai Fong

Digging treasure

The 77 demos are so good, they make my eyes wet, I want The Libertines back together!!!! No return to the good old days ...(sigh!)

Found out much live footage of The Strokes, I almost forgot how good The Strokes are used to be. Cute boys ^^, idiotic fangirl me.

Money to burn

I've got no money to burn baby
Why don't we just sit down and chat maybe
Need no substance to make me high
Need no make-up to glam me up
I'm broke but I'm chuffed (no, not really).


Broccoli with sole, Isola in Two International Finance Centre

Does it look delicious? It is indeed delicious. However, the price of the meal is not so "delicious". Blame it on my posh friends. With them, I feel like I am living in a different world, anyway, people are different, with different value judgment, and that's what makes the world go round. Stella Artois or that expensive Chardonnay? Stella of course!

Arse!

Haha, didn't he feel a bit "cool" at the bottom? I can't remember which station it is but funny things can actually be found anywhere. I am also amazed by the zoom effect of my cheap mobile.

Gathering moss idly

valium needed in convalescence
enjoy it
enjoy it
enjoy it (told you so)
restless and faceless
why can't I
why can't I
why can't I

Still too lazy to do anything for the photos at home, and I can't photoshop in the office, actually I can't go to internet in the office now (today is exception). How to pass time in the office without internet???

White riot

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own



This was the riot for the sake of riot, come on, it's bloody stupid and not fun at all. Rebel Without A Cause, huh!? I was woken up at about 2:00 am because there was a series of explosion just within 5 metres from my tent. It made me think of the film 28 Days Later, all people were mental (they were chanting "riot! riot!" like under some magic spell and continuously throwing beer to the fire to make explosion). It's kind of contagious. My tent was set up near Piccadilly Circus (the fire and explosion was started there). In order to save my life, I abandoned my tent and escaped to the Yellow Zone (but the riot then spread to the Yellow Zone also, see, it's contagious!) Owing to the so-called good fun of a riot, my shoulder was hit by a full can of beer (I should thank my Lord, I might be killed by that can if it was thrown a few centimetres higher).





I was forced to stay awake for the rest of the night, there're millions beautiful stars up in the sky which I've never noticed in the whole weekend, so it is always true that when you lost something (my tent which I would throw away anyway and my sleeping hours which I cherished much as I didn't want to have the panda eyes) , you found something also (the beautiful sky).

Blue sky and sunshine

The beauty of the northern sunshine - this is the sky I saw when I lay down on the grass of Bramham Park in Leeds. The weather was nice in this year Leeds Festival so I took much pleasure in just lying on the grass idly and listening to the music. How I hoped that moment would freeze to eternity. Graham Coxon left an extra-ordinary sweet memory to me. Of course the whole festival also got a dark side (like everything in the world but I don't want to elaborate it right now). Past challenges always seem to be the most easiest task. In this moment, I still say it's fun and enjoyable to go to music festival.

Highlight: Iggy Pop, Graham Coxon, The Coral, Pixies, The Cribs (yeah!), Arcade Fire and The Tears.

Look at my tent, it's pretty good. There were little Hello Kitty stickers and name tag there!!!

Back from the ...

I can hardly touch my notebook since the return from my trip. Actually I've thousands words want to express in both my website (which I've deserted for a good while) and also this garden but I was so busy in 'tripping' (so i can't update the part for The Tears gig in Hong Kong) and foolishly try to clear my old work in the old office last week (so I can't update the part of my trip).

This is the first day of my new job! There are so many things need to be learnt, pray Force Be With Me.

David, I've watched part of the dvd What The Fxxk of PD, it made me sad whenever I saw that madness in his eyes, he's no longer the chubby cherub, no, I still think he retains some part of an angelic soul, but clearly something is lost in the way....
he had come back from the dead
I keep it in reach
keep it in the fridge
courage my dear
when you look them in the eye
laugh if they try to be funny
because you need their money now you need their money

Yes actually I am also just coming from the near-death experience in my trip, the first time innocence, the second time ignorance, don't want to mention any of it, the secret I'll bring to grave. Hope I've time to write tomorrow....

There is an end to even the worst career!!!!

There is an end to even the worst career. That is what I want to say today.

I Got Gift

Yes, today I received a gift from the famous talented girl in Central, Vv!!!
She made the picture by her O2 mini, isn't she wonderful?!
Thank you Vv, kissy kissy.

Ask me I won't say no how could I

What constitutes a good pub? Cheap beer, cheap food ...
But what I like most is the music which brings a nice surprise.

"Spending warm summer days indoor
Writing frightening verse
to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg"

Wow, that's my song, The Smiths - Ask, playing in al diner (in lan kwai fong, the most cliche and uncool place in hong kong)!!!