Month: June 2007

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof – Part One Of Grindhouse

From the writer and director of “Reservoir Dogs”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Jackie Brown”, and “Kill Bill”, Quentin Tarantino has created yet another classic this time in the Grindhouse style. If you like his works, especially the earlier ones (less fantasy and more realism), there is no reason for you to miss “Death Proof” – a believable story of a mad stunt man killing groups of women with his “death proof” car. To better appreciate “Death Proof”, you have to understand where “Grindhouse” comes from.

Grindhouse cinemas, made popular in the 1970s, mainly showed double featured B-rated exploitation movies back to back with one another. Exploitation film belongs to a movie genre whereby lurid contents is focused upon in the expense of production quality. Hence explains Death Proof’s aspects of forbidden sex, wanton violence, drug use, and nudity. And I would expect Robert Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror” – the 2nd film of the double featured “Grindhouse” – to cover the rest of the aspects of freaks, monsters, destruction, rebellion, and mayhem.

If you are familiar with Quentin Tarantino’s style, you should expect no less from “Death Proof”. The script is refreshing, lively, and at times pornographic; the cinematography is brilliant in bringing out the mood of the film through change in color filters, effects, and lighting; the acting is excellent (I strongly believe that director has a part to play in how actors act); the action scene is entertaining and engaging. “Death Proof” does not have a lot of blood and gore scenes like “Kill Bill”. But when it does, the scenes are very real (be warned). The dialogue between the groups of girls itself worth the re-watch value with the camera floating seamlessly as the subject of focus is changed. As a guy, I love the car chasing scene – probably one of the best I have seen. And as for Cynthia, she was clapping and screaming in joy towards the end of the show. I personally find it a bit odd and I guess it is a girl thing. From the storyline perspective, Quentin Tarantino has once again demonstrated his stroke of genius by making a 2-hour long movie from a simple story that can be summed up in one sentence. And finally, it is illegal to walk away from a Quentin Tarantino film without thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack (pay attention to the ring-tone of one of the actresses). The part when one of the girls keeps changing the music in a jukebox as the conversation proceeds is one of my favorites. The song from the ending credits has such an infectious tone that there is a high chance I am getting the soundtrack just because of that song (anyone else loves that song besides me?).

Now, if you prefer a light entertainment and find explicit languages offensive, you may be in for a huge disappointment. There is a trailer for “Death Proof” but I strongly recommend against watching it if you are going to watch the movie anyway. For the undecided ones, check out the trailer to see if this is the sort of movie you may enjoy.

For true fans of Quentin Tarantino only: I have watched the interview from the directors and the selected cast a while back. This video clip may be a put off even for those who enjoy the movie but for the true fans, we just want more.

Categories
Snippet of My Life

Snippet Of My Life Episode 2 – Lost In Translation

She speaks. I listen. She finishes her question. I translate.

You speak. I listen. You finish your answer. I translate.

She smiles. You smile. While I anticipate the next string of words in either language.

She tells a story. I translate at each suitable interval. I speak while I listen. I listen while I speak. It is a long story.

You find the story interesting so you interject with a witty remark. I speak while I listen to your remark. I translate your remark while listening to her speaks. And the story continues.

I think while I translate. I translate while I listen. I listen while I think. Now, I wish to interject. Because the story got me interested. Two languages. One after another. Every time I make a comment.

She smiles. You smile. And I smile because of the oddity of speaking all the time. In both languages. Most of the time I am talking into space. Soon, I am lost in translation.

If that is not odd enough, now it is time for me to tell a story. In two languages. In near real time. Are you ready?

I saw a dog on the street, listening to music.
我在街上看見一隻狗，傾聽音樂。

A man was jogging, tripped over the dog’s tail and nearly fell onto the ground.
一個人在跑步，被狗的尾巴絆倒，幾乎跌倒了。

The dog howled in pain
狗在痛苦中嚎叫了

and started chasing after the man.
開始追逐那個人。

Ten minutes later the dog returned with something in his mouth that looked like a wallet.
十分鐘後，狗回來了，似乎咬著一個錢包。

The dog dropped the wallet onto my guitar case
狗把錢包放進我的吉他盒

as I continued to sing.
當我繼續唱歌。

I saw a dog on the street listening to my music.
我看見一隻狗在街上，傾聽我的音樂。

(1st translation by computer, 2nd translation by Lora)

Categories
Music Reviews Pop Rock & Alternative

Artist Gone Solo Part 3 of 3 – Tracey Thorn Of EBTG

If you are born after the year of 1979, I bet you one muffin (if you buy me the coffee) that you have heard the Todd Terry remix version of “Missing” from the band Everything But The Girl (EBTG). That song is probably one of my top 20 songs of all time (I should start to keep track of all these songs for one day I may have said it more than 20 times). To hear “Missing”, click onto the link. I bet now you start to remember towards the end of the song when the drum beat disappears and the dance floor is flooded with blinking light in a smoke filled room, you look around seeing everyone in slow step-forward motion engaging in some sort of trance state of mind including yourself … now you remember. Before you make a negative comment on the appearance of Tracey Thorn, she does have a beautiful voice and a wonderful talent. And she tends to draw lots of female fans too (from some of the profiles I have read across the web).

It is rather unfortunately that people equate “Missing” to EBTG’s style. You can’t blame the public for that. After all, “Missing” is probably the most popular song coming from the band giving them the worldwide recognition. I bought the album “Amplified Heart” because of that one song and the rest of the tracks are mainly acoustic. Back then, they were a folk and jazz group.

12 years have passed since “Missing” and Tracey Thorn – the voice of EBTG – has come out with a solo album “Out Of The Woods” with her co-writing the materials with producers from Europe to US (London, Brighton, Nottingham, York, Lisbon, Berlin, and New York). In a way, this array of different talents from different locations have added much variety to her solo album. Music-wise, it is a mix of English pop, folk, and electronica. Those who love “Missing” will rejoice listening to “Out Of The Woods”. Lyrically, it is simple and personal. I especially like the opening lyrics of “By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept”.

Wait … before you read on, what does that song title reminds you of? Quick quick, it is a game of association.

To me, that reminded me of “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept” by the famous writer “Paulo Coelho”. The beginning of the song goes something like “Do you ever wonder where love goes? Out there in the ether, I suppose. Sometimes it burns enough to leave a trace in the air. A ghost of me and you in a parallel world somewhere.”.

Tracey Thorn’s voice is hauntingly soothing and relax throughout the album and it is hard not to love all the tracks. However, having a broad team of producers may have added more variety to the album, not all the songs – to me – are of equal standard. I like some a lot more than some others. Enough of words. Let the song do the talking. “It’s All True” – a nice song with a bizarre video. If you like “It’s All True”, you may wish to try “Raise The Roof”. I personally like “A-Z”, “Falling Off A Log”, and epecially “Grand Canyon” a lot but she is not making them into singles … as yet. “Grand Canyon” is as close to “Missing” as you can get.

Categories
Fragments of My Dreams

Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 1 – Being A Spy

I am a spy and together with my team, we infiltrate a high-rise government building that belongs to one of our neighbours. The nature of this building is not known to me. What is our neighbour’s building doing in the land of our country? I do not know. I am new to this job and most of the time I follow my supervisor. This government building must be covered in glass panels. I rarely get to see that. In fact, most of the time, we are hiding inside one room underground that our neighbouring country does not even know it exists. There are computers inside, together with all the high tech equipment. We joke with one another inside this room and we do a lot of silly things inside to pass time. As told by my supervisor, we have paid millions to have this room added during the construction of the building without letting anybody knows about it but us.

In one of our routine spying mission, we venture out of our secret room and into a large dark room to gather information. Out of extraordinary, I have seen Andrew, one of my teammates, reappears from nowhere while talking in his wireless phone. All of a sudden, my supervisor alerts my team of a potential exposure and true enough, I see a figure appears round the corner at the far end of the long corridor.

“The Keyfinder is here!” screams my supervisor. We all run along the long corridors and into our secret room. I have a quick glance at the Keyfinder and he wears a costume of red and blue. Behind him is a troop of military with guns ready to shoot us to death. A Keyfinder, from what I remember, is someone who knows every single room of the building by heart.

We barely make it in time and my supervisor activates the button to seal off the door permanently and makes it disappear for good. A huge slab of steel falls upon the closed door making it impossible to be reopened again. My supervisor screams, “Run!” and we all run for our life.

I have a nagging feeling that Andrew is the mole. I punch in the request at my high tech watch to do a call trace on Andrew’s phone just seconds before we were spotted by the Keyfinder.

As we emerge from the tunnels and corridors of darkness, we must be high up in the building. My supervisor opens the glass panels and below, I see a line that connects this building with the next. I feel the wind from outside. We walk gingerly along the wire and I try not to look down (though I am thrilled by finally able to see outdoors after ages of living inside a basement). We must be on the 50th floor. After some acrobatic moves, we arrive safely to another high-rise building just opposite from that building we used to camp for weeks.

We are safe. At least from the Keyfinder. These foreign agents cannot hurt us out of their domain. At night, inside Chinatown, I meet my supervisor and tell him all about Andrew. He tells me that it is common to have a mole in our team. And he bets Andrew gets 23-million dollars like the rest before him and he should have by now left our country for good.

This, is not fair. We have lost that room forever. What are we going to do?

Note: This is a real dream of mine. How much can you decipher?

Categories
Diary

A Family Weekend – A Rare Occasion

Click to enlarge

Last night I could not sleep. I lied in bed for six hours with my eyes closed but I just could not sleep. Not sure if I was nervous about today’s jamming session (yes, I treat each session with utmost seriousness) or I was going to visit my sister’s boyfriend Benny aka my ex’s brother and his family. It must have been 10 years since I have seen his parents. It is strange that I had dated his sister for more than 4 years and both sides of the parents have not met one another.

Let’s rewind a bit. Yesterday, my sister brought us to her new office at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and it was my 2nd time there. 1st time I dropped off my sister for the job interview. NTU is so huge! And green … and some buildings are pretty artistic.

How time flies between the two visits. And since Lora has just gotten her first paycheck (thank God), it was time to give us a treat at Jumbo East Coast Park. My mother loves the chili crab there … and the sea view too.

Just to narrate on the photos … from left to right, up then down … my sister Lora, my wife Cynthia, and my mother just outside the building where my sister works. Then the next 3 photos were taken inside her office. Look, it is an office with a view! Not only that, it comes with a white board, a few chairs, and a sofa. And of course there is a name tag of … Senior Assistant Director outside her room. Power hor?

I am so proud of my little sister.

12pm-ish, we picked up our lead guitarist Jason. Had our lunch at our usual hawker center and time to jam (for new visitors of my site, “jamming” means our band get together and play music)! This time round, Jason did some setting for Cynthia’s bass guitar and it sounded much, much better. Full body and sounded grunge. We have also boosted up the instrumental tracks and I have taken some of Cynthia’s advice on my vocals. Overall, we did 2 runs of 9 songs and have recorded over 80 minutes of music. Cynthia has some interesting bass runs and Jason’s guitar … well, it is always divine. The final live recording is pleasant to listen to and our next step is for me to make a better transcript of my songs for Jason and Cynthia (current transcripts can be confusing at times). Snail pace to live performance but we are getting there, for sure.

Now, back to tonight’s dinner, Benny’s mother has cooked so much food (very delicious some more)! The last time I tasted her cooking was 10 years ago while I was camping at Benny’s room before I found a place to rent. Now that my sister is staying in Benny’s sister’s room (she got married), I am sure my sister is well taken care of. Benny’s parents are really nice.

What a walk on the memory lane tonight. Funny how life turns out to be. Every step we take … leads to somewhere … significant. To our oneself, and to people around us.

Categories
Music Reviews Pop Rock & Alternative

Bon Jovi’s Lost Highway – Music Inspired By Nashville, Tennessee

Last evening we had a little jamming session at my home that went pretty well. Except it overran for an hour. We managed to record more than 90 minutes of live music from 8pm to 11pm. My mother who is recently in town asked me this morning if I wrote all these songs. She was pleasantly surprised and wondered why I don’t work in a music industry. I wish life is that simple. What a role reversal here. I thought parents always want their children to be doctors, lawyers, businessmen … and not to pursue a career in art.

And somehow I was not surprised to see the look in my guitarist’s face when he discovered a new Bon Jovi CD lying on the floor together with piles and piles of CDs. He casually asked if Bon Jovi still produces albums (read: this band still exists?).

“Lost Highway” is Bon Jovi’s 10th studio album and I have got 8 of them from “Slippery When Wet” onwards as well as the box set entitled “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” that contains four CDs packed with 38 unreleased and 12 rare tracks. I have been to one of their concerts (the tour for “These Days” album) when I was in UK, waited 12 hours before the band’s appearance, and was close enough to see the band in action.

Okay. I confess that I am a Bon Jovi fan – one of the 100,000,000.

Once in a while, God bless mankind with a rock band that is so consistent album after album. Really, I cannot tell the difference between “These Days”, “Crush”, and “Bounce” – just to pick a few. Each album comes with a bunch of killer faster songs that people all go wild in bars when cover bands play them (who wouldn’t dance and sing along with the recent hits of “It’s My Life”, “Everyday”, or “Have a Nice Day”?). And each album is never short of killer slow songs. Songs like “Always”, “Bed of Roses”, and “I’ll be There for You” bleed hearts.

“Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, a track from their ninth studio album “Have a Nice Day”, has won the Grammy Award for “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals”. Country? That’s right. Listen to the first two tracks of “Lost Highway”, one may be mistaken that Bon Jovi is going country. There is even one song featured LeAnn Rimes. Initially I thought this album is more appropriate as Richie Sambora’s (lead guitarist) solo album (he has two solo albums that have a certain country feel). After a few rounds of listening, I conclude that “Lost Highway” is still a Bon Jovi album with a certain country feel to it. Half of the album is produced by John Shanks (who produced “Have a Nice Day”) and another half by Dahn Huff. I can’t really tell which half is more “country” but two of my favourite songs “(You Want To) Make A Memory” and “We Got It Going On” are produced by Dahn Huff.

I can certainly see that Richie Sambora has put in a lot of hard work in this album. As a backing vocalist, he compliments Jon’s vocal well and as a lead guitarist, there are a fair amount of guitar solos throughout the album. Richie Sambora has been going through a tough period in his life (including a painful divorce) and according to him, he has poured everything he had into this project, every last bit of soul at his command.

Why Nashville you may ask. To Jon, Nashville is full of songwriters and musicians and he wanted to make an album right in the middle of this town of inspiration. It is of no surprise that the last song of the album is “I Love This Town”.

I am not sure how you may react to this album if you are not a hardcore Bon Jovi fan. “Lost Highway” is definitely not one of those commercial pop rock albums that can easily hook onto you. Nor it is a typical Bon Jovi album that you can instantly fall in love with. According to Cynthia, she said the single “(You Want To) Make a Memory” is enough for her to buy the album. Wish to give that song a try? Watch their live performance below. I personally find the song a bit bland. However, the element of simplicity kind of grows on me. As for the non-hardcore fans? Do sample the album thoroughly to see if this country feel is your cup of tea.

Categories
Diary

So This Is Ginkgo … And A Perfect Number 200

*** 2 0 0 ***

That is the number when you add the age of my family of four together. Or shall I say, between the four of us, there is a life experience of 200 of years by March next year. I often wonder how much knowledge is lost from one generation to the next. I wish to learn how my father takes those award winning photographs (for real). I wish to learn the art of calligraphy from him and in particularly, his way to compose Chinese articles. And above all, Tai Chi. He has own set of students and from the DVD he sent to me, I saw smoke coming out from his head while he exercised. No special effect I swear.

But to extract these knowledge from my father requires talents. No way I can learn that unless we can each live for another 200 years. Cooking, however, is much easier to do. From young while boys next door spent time outside playing basketball and dating girls, I always enjoyed staying at the kitchen watching my mother cooked. So I may not be able to shoot basketball even if there is a prize of one million dollars nor charm girls on the streets and in the club, I enjoy being able to cook my own dishes each and every day if I want to – for myself and those who stay with me.

Still, I can probably cook only a fraction of what my mother can cook. So while she is in town, what better things to do than to take this opportunity in expanding my repository of dishes? Amongst many, there is ginkgo.

Like my sister who has recently settled in Singapore, I find it hard at times to reconcile what I know in Chinese terms to what are being called in English. Till today. After all, from where I was born, Cantonese is the day-to-day spoken language and nothing else. I first heard the word “Ginkgo” from one of my friends who is in need of some memory booster. He was thinking of taking the ginkgo pills that his mother is taking. You know what life after 30 is like for some of us. People forget things, repeat stories, and repeat the same story to whom he or she hears the story from.

Lately I visited the Japanese restaurant Nambantei (featured in my previous blog) and had ginkgo nut sticks. It tasted bitter and if not for its supposed benefits, I would not have finished it.

I took my mother for Chinese herbs shopping as I wanted a refresher course on soup making. My mother asked if I wanted to eat “白果” and looking at those nuts on display and recalling what I have eaten at that Japanese restaurant, I suddenly realised that “白果” is in fact “Ginkgo”. When we returned home, I volunteered to clean those nuts and it is a rather tedious process as it turns out.

First, the shell is hard. Mere mortals like us won’t be able to crack them with our bare hands. So I armed with a hammer and hit each nut with the right strength. Very much like peeling crab craws. If I hit too hard, I smash the entire ginkgo and it looks pretty gruesome. Healthy ginkgo flesh is soft to touch with a certain moist (the moist left a funny smell to my fingers that smelt like … [censored]). Bad ginkgo flesh is hardened and with black patches. There are attrition in each batch of genkgos. Just throw away the bad ones and keep the good ones.

Ginkgo fresh from the shell has an outer fleshy coating. It is relatively tedious to peel off this coating. The best way is to boil them for 5 minutes. And then peel off the outer coating as well as breaking each ginkgo into halves and see if there is a tiny “stem” inside. That thing is bitter and should be removed. No wonder the ginkgo nut sticks at that Japanese restaurant tasted bitter.

We use ginkgos to cook dessert and I must say, the taste is wonderful. So much hard work in preparing ginkgos. Even though ginkgo has a few good medical benefits (quote from Wikipedia: it improves blood flow to most tissues and organs, protects against oxidative cell damage from free radicals, and blocks many of the effects of platelet aggregation and blood clotting that are related to the development of a number of cardiovascular, renal, respiratory and Central Nervous System disorders), taken in large dosage in a prolong period (5 per day for children) can be poisonous. Like all things in life, consume in moderation.

Talking about the benefit of improved blood flow, this morning I woke up and … [censored].

Categories
Drama Movie Reviews

Black Snake Moan – A Bit Of Sex, A Bit Of Jesus, And A Whole Lotta Blues

What happens when you put together a bitter old man whose life has beaten him so bad and a young girl who has a “disease” or a “spell” of wanting to have sex with men at least once a day? A young white girl physically chained up in a black old man’s house. Now, can a bit of Bible and the blues music from the old man’s heart cure this young girl? You will have to watch this movie to find out.

Feeling bad that we have left Tong Kiat out for the last two movies Fantastic Four and Ocean 13, after I have received a message from him that he would be landing at 4pm, I sprang into action and picked “Black Snake Moan”.

You may not need to understand blues music to appreciate “Black Snake Moan” but certainly it will help. The show begins with Son House (aka Eddie James House, Jr.) – an influential American blues singer and guitarist – talking about blues music and his appearance continues at each relevant stage of the movie. The movie title is derived from a song by yet another blues artist named Blind Lemon Jefferson. And lastly, the influence of blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist R. L. Burnside is all over the cast. The grandchildren of Burnside, Cedric Burnside and Kenny Brown, are in Lazarus’s (played by Samuel L. Jackson) band; the character name of the reverend is Reverend R. L.; and there are remarkable similarity between Lazarus and Burnside’s features. In short, the entire movie from casting to soundtrack is heavily blues influenced.

And because of that, it is understandable why Samuel L. Jackson (as “Lazarus”) and Christina Ricci (as “Rae”) are in their shabby clothing most of the time living in a rather shabby house. Even the cars and the town itself are shabby. To me, blues music is from the heart talking about love and human conditions. And neither topic is a happy topic in real life most of the time. Almost throughout the movie, Samuel L. Jackson is unshaven and messy while Christina Ricci is presented with not only no make-up but also a bruised-up face resulted from an assault.

From the storyline perspective, it is original. The acting of Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci (I am a fan of both) are great making most part of the movie an enjoyable experience to watch. The dialogue between them gives them much opportunity to develop their relationship. Did you know that Jackson can play blues guitar and sings? I surely did not. And Christina Ricci who has experimented with self-mutilation after her parents’ divorce – strange as it may sound – seems to have made for this role. The last movie I have watched with her acted as the main actress is “Prozac Nation” (an adaptation from the famous book on depression). I think she is a specialist for this kind of movies.

Interestingly, as Rae’s boyfriend (imagine what sort of man would date a girl who has slept with half of the town), it is none other than Justin Timberlake as the character Ronnie who suffers from extreme anxiety (what a movie filled with weird characters). Seems to me that Rae is the only antidote Ronnie can find in this town and they are in love. I personally question Justin Timberlake’s acting ability. Fortunately his part is not long and he does manage to squeeze out an ounce or two of tears when needed too. Oh well, when not needed to as well. (Afterthought: Why am I so critical to Justin Timberlake? Is it because I am a guy? It is not uncommon that a film pulls in an eye candy – a girl usually – to lighten up the show. And funny as it seems, Justin is probably the prettiest thing in the whole movie.)

Again, is “Black Snake Moan” for everybody? Let me ask you, is blues music for everybody (answer is probably no)? I enjoyed the show a lot and probably agree with some critics that this could be the best movie of 2007 so far. Tong Kiat and Cynthia find it “different”. You may wish to check out the trailer by clicking here.

Categories
Diary

What TV Shows Are You Currently Watching?

From left to right: Rome, Angela's Eyes, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Ghost Whisperer, After Hours

When I was a bachelor, I seldom watch TV. In fact, I could live months happily without a TV. I was used to think that TV takes up too much of my attention. I preferred entertainments such as listening to music and reading books. Now, I am a changed man.

I often wonder what others are watching. For me, “Heroes” has to be on top of my list. By far the best and most original TV series I have watched with ordinary people discovering their extraordinary powers while in search of their destiny. Once in a while a hero dies. So long as the soft porn star still lives, I am happy (please don’t tell me the ending if you have already watched the series on the web).

Cynthia got me into watching “Desperate Housewives”. I was initially sceptical over the recycled plots (on relationship and murder) for each season but the stories are actually quite interesting. I in particularly like the narration especially in the beginning and the end of each episode. And yes, I think Eva Longoria (as “Gabrielle”) is very hot.

“Rome” from HBO is actually a TV series worthy of watching due to its artistic value. The first season of 10 episodes tells the story of Gaius Julius Caesar (played by Ciarán Hinds) through 2 commoners. The costumes, rituals, and the scripts are well attended to. Some of the concepts are foreign to today’s tradition but then again, “Rome” is a story back in the old days. I was worried that this season would not be as good because of the death of the iconic Julius Caesar from the previous season. Fortunately, the adult version of Gaius Octavian’s rise of power added much power to the plot. I am eager to see how the story unfolds.

I recently got hooked onto “Angela’s Eyes”. Cynthia does not like the main actress Abigail Spencer because she looks too cold and fearsome. I find this attitude of hers attractive. It is a cross between Alias and some crime related drama and Angela’s special ability is her eyes – she can see through lies. That sort of put her in an interesting situation in her social life.

Of course not to forget to mention that my beloved Jennifer Love Hewitt’s “Ghost Whisperer” will return this Friday with a new season. I did not miss a single episode of the last season. Neither will I miss any this season.

Lastly, I also watch After Hours. I know I know … many friends of mine are frown upon my, shall I say, lack of taste or lack of class. Some episodes are not so watchable but some episodes are quite light and nice. For me, it is a change from all the Western series and “After Hours” is not strictly a Chinese series either. Just nice for me.

So, these are my indulgence during evening hours. What are ones you are currently watching?

Categories
Announcement

Annoucement: Introducing The New “Music Reviews” Page

Note: The Music Review Page is now taken down due to a change of blog engine. 

Ever since the beginning of 2007, as suggested by one of my buddies, I have tried to write a small music review on each of the music album purchased. Initially I did it for some selected music albums I have bought and in some occasions, from my friends’ feedback, I realise that I may have helped them in their decisions in some way or have uncovered some artists whom they were not aware of. And that was also the time when I was inspired to re-brand my website to “Where Good Things Are Meant To Be Shared” as I consolidated the meanings behind the sharing of the new movies I have watched, good restaurants I have visited, books that I read, and etc – all brought together under one cohesive theme. These days I try to write a review on all my album purchases religiously.

After written over 30 reviews on music alone, I realise that unlike movies whereby people have more overlapping genres they are interested in, music preference can be quite unique to some. I know friends who listen to mostly jazz. Some enjoy chill-out music. I know friends who particularly don’t enjoy listening to pop music. I can rarely find friends who like metal music. Even harder to find those who have a passion for Japanese music. But of course, when it comes to pop and rock, majority enjoy the instant gratification these artists offer.

In view of that, lately I have added a new sub-category for music genres. My thinking is, if someone enjoy reading my review on one particular genre, he or she may wish to see what other reviews I have written for that genre.

From time to time, I do listen to suggestions. A buddy of mine suggested that I shall add a scoring system for my reviews. So a 5-star would be a music album or a movie that should not be missed. I have considered for quite a while and decided against it. It is because I don’t think any reviewer or critic can tell anyone what to do without either generalising all people as having the same preference or thinking that his or her own preferences count for something that the public should follow. I am talking in the domain of art whereby an apple to apple comparison is almost impossible. So what I do is to highlight the highs and lows of each album or movie and let the reader decides if the lows can be overlooked or the highs are enough to tilt the balance of decision. My rating may not mean anything to you because I am not you.

In anticipation that readers are making the purchase ahead of my reviews, I always try to release the reviews for the “most-wanted” artists before others. But it is still not ideal. If you take a look at my “Music Review” page, there are still 11 albums outstanding under “Coming Soon”. I seldom buy albums that I immensely regret so in a way, if you see some albums that you wish to purchase and I have them, most likely they are worth your time to check them out (that is if your music taste is not totally opposite of mine). Better still, you can MSN me (info on banner of this site) and I am more than happy to give you my 5-cent.

It is because of all of the above (and you as the readers of my site) that I have created a “Music Reviews” page that houses most of my recent reviews. You are welcome to check this page out from time to time to see what are coming soon and to catch up on some reviews that you may have missed. Just a click of a link on the main menu to the left.

In case if you are not aware of, my site has the build-in search functionality for all the contents – articles, blogs, forum, and etc. Thank you for dropping by from time to time. Happy surfing. All suggestions are welcome.