Month: September 2008

Categories
Hard Rock & Metal Music Reviews

Metallica – Death Magnetic – The Gigantic Metallic Beast Is Awakened

If someone was to tell me a few years ago that Kirk Hammett would once again pick up his guitar and be the legendary guitar hero he once was, I would chuckle in disbelief.  If someone was to tell me that the new Metallica album would sound like this, com’on!  Are you for real?

Blasting Death Magnetic on our way home, Cynthia and I were screaming out loud punching fists in the air.  At first listen!  I only managed to get into St. Anger after 250 times of album repeat (no kidding, I used to have a count in my computer and it is hard to decipher the seemingly random patterns).  Gosh!  Are we living in an alternative reality or what?!  Kirk Hammett has finally come to his senses and hammers out some real cool and original guitar solo tracks.  Check out the signature snare smashing double bass by Lars Ulrich.  Not just double-time, or quadruple-time, but octuple-time double bass.  You wouldn’t have thought someone in the mid-forties, hospitalized in 2004 having to miss the tour, still able to pull this sort of act off.  The new bassist Robert Trujillo who was recruited into the band during the St. Anger era (that scene of one million cash proposal on the table together with an equal share as seen in the video Some Kind of Monster is hard to forget) plays brilliantly in this album.  Certainly my favorite Metallica bassist of all time.  Hopefully, Metallica Inc. is going to keep this one.  James Hetfield’s voice is in top form, sounds confident (consider how far gone he was with the alcoholism and rehabilitation), and his lyrics reflect just that, “You rise, you fall, you’re down then you rise again.  What don’t kill ya make ya more strong”.  Isn’t it more positive than “Shoot me again I ain’t dead yet”?  Not to forget to mention the mad guitar riffing of the opening track, these two guitarists have rescaled the difficulty spectrum of thrash metal up a few notches.

Approach any Metallica fan and we all have our favorite eras.  Rarely you find someone (like me) who loves everything from Kill ‘Em All (1983) to St. Anger (2003) including that S&M live with the San Francisco Symphony.  Purists would love the pre-Black Album era of songs like “The Four Horseman”, “Ride The Lightning”, “Master of Puppets”, and “… And Justice For All”.  These are great tracks, no doubt.  I still remember learning the riffs of songs from that era.  Then came the 15 times platinum selling Black Album that most fans would acknowledge its significance.  Some say the Load and ReLoad eras are sell-out, way too commercialized to the hardcore fans’ liking.  Well, I happen to enjoy being indulged in those amid slower, but somewhat memorable melodies.  And as a defender of St. Anger, I find myself having to explain to people my philosophy of why St. Anger – despite lacking in Kirk’s solo – was ahead of its time.  If you listen to Death Magnetic closely, you may be able to recognize the bits and pieces originating from the chaos within St. Anger (read: If there was no St. Anger, there wouldn’t have been a Death Magnetic).

What the new producer Rick Rubin has done is amazing.  There is an overarching structure yet there are elements of jamming within; there are familiar melodic phrases yet the singing of “Sad But True” and the earlier work keeps ringing in my head; there are modern guitar effects yet the pure metal essence of the “Master of Puppets” lives inside Death Magnetic; there is even an instrumental track “Suicide & Redemption” that rivals “Orion”.  Death Magnetic is a consolidation of all that Metallica has offered in the last 25 years.  It is a unifying platform for all the Metallica fans out there to rejoice.

Related Site: Metallica TV on YouTube

Categories
Jamming Session

Gearing Up For Our Band’s First Public Performance – No Eye Candy Live @ Heeren

Last month, after band manager Selrol and I met up with the representatives from a non-profit organization, we were excited to have signed ourselves up for an upcoming performance at The Heeren Shops, Orchard.

I wish life is as simple as that.

First, drums will not provided.  Second, our lead guitarist Jason will be on reservist.  Highly unlikely that he will make it.  OK.  As the self-proclaimed leader of the band, I had to make a decision to go ahead or to give this opportunity a miss.  My initial thought was to let this one go in the name of one-for-all, all-for-one.  Jason thought that it would be a wonderful experience for the band.  Need not to say, our always-ready-for-live-performance bassist Cynthia has been yearning for some real actions for a long time.  Our drummer Wieke proposed to play the acoustic guitar instead and we can perform unplugged.

Unplugged?

And third, Wieke will be posted to Malaysia for a long business appointment.  Gosh!  How challenging our band’s first performance is turning out to be!  Time to up the practice tempo.  Wieke is totally driven and we are meeting 2 to 3 times a week to firm up our music arrangement before she flies off.  Another amazing thing about Wieke is that she can so totally play the producer’s role too rearranging our songs to make them sound fresher and more dramatic.  She suggested Cynthia to play a more active role as the backing vocalist.  And that works wonder.  Cynthia is an amazing singer in her own right.

Today we have spent half an afternoon to practice (imagine, Wieke worked till 4.30am in the morning!) and we are meeting tomorrow to continue.  We are excited to play for “Music for Hope 2008”.  You will hear more about the event later.  Stay tuned!

Our band’s mini-site: NoEyeCandy.com

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

The Moon Against a Beautiful Blue Sky

Besides imaginary friends, I have scripts of imaginary thank you speech too.  I would picture this vision of “I made it” – not a bad end in mind I reckon – and I would give thanks to those who believe in me and to those who don’t.  Except, those who don’t probably become less significant so much so that their once upon a time significance may not even exist anymore.  Yet they have been as important as the believers who support me from one end of the ocean to another; their constant misconception, lack of faith fuels my obsession, propels me forward.

I believe not because I don’t have taste.  I believe because I can see the potential, because I want to care, and because I have hope.

I love the blue sky.  Everything looks beautiful against a blue sky.  Recently read a thought experiment of a baby being brought up inside a spaceship, with the absence of the color blue.  When the baby grows up, the scientists land the spaceship on Earth, and show the young kid a clear blue sky.  How would the kid react?

I love the moon too, against a pitch black sky, in the darkest hours.  There is something mysterious about this lone piece of rock that orbits around us.  It is like a dream so near but yet so unreachable; it is like something so alive but yet so lifeless.  Silently the moon creates the tide that creates the movement that creates the wind.  An invisible force that draws us into her.

I thank the believers, and I thank the non-believers too.  Above all, I love the moon against a blue sky most.

Categories
For the Geeks Game Reviews

Spore – My 1st 8 Hours

8 years in the making, 3 years of anticipation for the fans, I grabbed a copy of “Spore” in a heartbeat.  Check out these colorful pictures taken from within the game.  All these creatures and objects are created by me – from head to toe, skin color to the extra pair of eyes on the butt.

I am a meat lover so I create a carnivore [1].  In phase 1 of the game (Cell), my goal is to keep eating other creatures while avoid to be eaten by the much bigger ones.  The more it eats, the bigger it gets, and the more DNA it acquires, the more complex it evolves [2] & [3].  At this phase, it is cute, it is fun, it is 2D, and it plays like a good old arcade game.  I absolutely love it.

At the beginning of phase 2 (Creature), my creature leaves the ocean [4].  Given the option of socializing with other groups of creatures through songs and dances (no kidding) versus hunting down each species to extinction, guess which path I take [6]?

OK.  You don’t have to take the path of destruction but I want my creatures to be the blood thirst warriors.  Enter phase 3 (Tribal), my desire to dominate continues [5].  This phase plays like a real time strategy game while the previous one is more like a role playing game.

In phase 4 (Civilization), my creatures build houses, entertainment centers, factories (that I designed) and … weapons of mass destruction [7]!  We tear down rival civilizations one by one converting their economic cities into military ones, their religious ones too into military cities.  Need not to say, the game play is very much like a simplified, accelerated version of Civ.

What comes at the end of world domination?  It is time for my creatures with eyes on their butts to rule the galaxy!  First, I need a spaceship [8].

Then, I need to practice high speed flying in a 3D world [9]!

And, it is time to do some serious space travel [10].  At this phase (Space), the game is initially mission driven and there are enough things to do for the ‘end game’ such as advancing through the ranks, collecting rare items, and learning new abilities.  What is the end of this game like?  It is for you to find out!

For those who are curious, “Spore” is the first multi-genre massively single-player online game.  Before I log off, check out this quote from Will Wright, the game designer for Spore and the Sim franchise.  Some of you may be able to relate and have a good laugh on this (like I did).

We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. “Spore” has more depth than, let’s say, “The Sims” did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for “Sims 2”³, which was around 90, and something like “Half-Life”, which was 97, and we decided – quite a while back – that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of “Sims 2”³ than the Metacritic and sales of “Half-Life.”

Categories
Diary

My 3rd Blogger Book Review at McGraw-Hill Education / Would You Like Me to (White) Lie to You?

Two things.  First, I am happy that McGraw-Hill Education Asia has published an excerpt of my book review at their website.  This is my third contribution to their site, and I don’t take this opportunity for granted for sure.  I feel blessed and I shall do better.  Do follow the link and check out other reviews too.  There are books from thinking to innovation, GE to Toyota, water reuse to Windows Vista, and more.

Second, after I have written the review for that book on ethics, I can’t help but to talk to the people around me on what I’ve learned (I do practice what I preached about learning and sharing).  Inevitably, it often comes down to the topic of ‘white lies’.

Before I continue, please allow me to recap: (1) ethics code is my personal code, a set of guidelines on what I should or should not do and (2) I am not using my own ethics code to judge or criticize anyone.  With that said, here are the interesting questions and responses I wish to share.

Question 1 – Is it OK for us to tell ‘white lies’?

Usually I get a positive response saying it is OK to white-lie.

Question 2 – Isn’t ‘white lie’ a form of deception?

Some may not agree that telling a ‘white lie’ is being deceptive.  Some point out that if it is harmless, it is OK to white-lie to someone.  And I think to myself: Harmless to whom?

Question 3 – Is it OK for me to white-lie to you?  If so, how much white-lies you can take from me?

According to what I have read, from one of the surveys conducted, most people think that it is OK to tell ‘white lies’ but only a minority feel that it is OK to be white-lied to.  So why the discrepancy?

I don’t know about you all (again, point 1 and 2 above).  But if you are my friend, I’d rather you don’t white-lie to me if possible even if you think it is harmless.  Let me decide on that.

Cool?

Categories
Concert

Avril Lavigne Best Damn Tour (Singapore) – Pure Girl Power, An Entertaining Evening

An awesome performance, this girl can rock, plays guitar and piano, executes a somersault on stage, groves with her dancers, and believe it or not, she had a go with the drums.  101% high in entertainment value, Avril has grown so much since the day we watched her performed in SunTech.

I can certainly see how the change in the band lineup has affected the music arrangement in a positive way.  No longer does she sing the album as it is, the crowd loved it, and so was I.  Three albums under her belt, the concert was packed with familiar tunes that the (female) audience can sing with (her key is way above what normal male species can reach).

Is one and a half hour concert a bit too short?  Certainly it is for me.  Time didn’t passed, it vanished.  Before I knew it, the concert was ended.  Gosh, I can’t wait for Avril’s next tour.  If that music video played during the concert is one of her upcoming singles, perhaps her new album is round the corner.

Avril loves to hold her fist up in the air.  This is pure girl power I am tell ya.  I am happy that I have chanced upon her first album since day one of her career.  From complicated to the best damn thing, this young artist has done her home country (Canada) proud, for sure.

PS: Sorry for the lousy photos.  I wish I had a gigantic telephoto lens the dude at my row has.

Related Posts:

Categories
My YouTube

Video Clip of DJ Inquisitive at Zouk, Singapore for the DMC World Championship Country Finals

This is the video clip of DJ Inquisitive recorded at Zouk during the DMC World Championship Singapore Finals as promised.  And yes, he is good.  The reigning champ has defended his title and will head to UK to compete for the World Supremacy title.

After all the hard earned experience in the post production work for my band’s videos at the jamming studios not ideal for sound recording, I thought I was well equipped to do the job here.  Took me a long time to figure out that applying effects on an upscale mono low bit-rate audio clip introduces a lot of high frequency noise.  Also, quite a few video encoding tools out there don’t handle mono audio clips well.

On a more positive note in the name of sharing, to clean up the mono audio recording of this clip, I pass the original recording through a clean solid state amp simulator with a flat boosted EQ setting and a 4×12 cabinet to add clarity to the muffled sound.  I then pass this to a compressor with a soft knee and a moderately boosted output gain to keep the sound hot but not too distorted.  Feel free to share the technique you use to clean up the sound recorded from a camera here. Hope you’ll enjoy watching this video.

Related Posts:

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Murder Of The Inugami Clan – A Detective Story That Triggers Childhood Memories

Woke up at 7am on a Friday morning, I switched on my phone an hour later and a text message arrived at my inbox: Murder Of The Inugami Clan?

Not a big fan of the genre of crime but I am happy to do a bit of give and take.  Who knows, one day the rest of the Movie Review Squad may yield to the genre of horror – something I love, and often watch alone.

Do you remember the days when you were still a young adult, grew impatience, and started to read books for the adults?  And you might have struggled to finish reading the books like me?  I remember vividly what types of books I read when I was very young: the genre of Wuxia and the Japanese detective novels translated in Chinese.

What hindered me back then hindered me this evening.  Japanese detective novels usually involve quite a number of characters and it is not easy to memorize who is who (in Japanese) as the stories develop.  “Murder of the Inugami Clan” triggers my childhood memory because the story is so similar to those that I have read when I was young: the sheer number of characters, the mystery, and the indescribable dark mood that overshadows the entire story.  The Japanese can be so creative, however illogical the stories can sometimes be.

Notable Japanese director Kon Ichikawa’s final piece of work (he passed away this year at the age of 92) has a certain darkness and bleakness within but not without a dose of humanity.  The story is set after the World War II and the wealthy Inugami patriarch passes away leaving behind a strange will with strange conditions.  A series of murder take place even before the will is announced; a series of past history begin to surface as the plot unfolds.  It is our detective’s job to put the pieces together and solve the puzzle.

I believe what Kon Ichikawa wished to retain is the traditional approach to film making as “Murder of the Inugami Clan” is a remake of his own movie created 30 years ago.  Some audience may chuckle at how unrealistic some of the murder scenes are.  I doubt if any such scene was at all realistic three decades ago.  Pockets of humor are scattered in making the film relatively more uplifting.  I personally enjoyed watching the acting.  Very old school.  (Yes, I did at times allow to watch TV when I was young and my favorite was and still is Japanese dramas).

Not necessarily a film to entertain but a film to admire without having to think too hard.  When our main character Kosuke Kindaichi, the detective, first checks into his hotel room, he looks out of his window, captivated by the beautiful greenery scenery of the mountain behind the lake,and he said something like: where a nation is defeated, nature endures.  So subtlety describes the feeling of people after the war.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Answer to That Quiz and My Spanish Class Continues with The World of Verbs And What Not

Thank you for all your creative answers for that little quiz of mine posted last Sunday.  It was a great fun just by reading them.  Darkspore and TK came really close to the answer of a reflection through a car (though I must say they have the advantage of knowing me in person) and therefore, dudes, I will cook that Cantonese meal I promise.  In the spirit of fun and charity, I will make them donate a handsome sum of money so that I can continue to fund this website and continue to delight you lovely readers out there.

I have a habit of taking random pictures as and when inspirations hit me.  I enjoy doing that because these pictures may come in handy in the future.  Like the one for my Sunday post on self-reflection, I thought it does suit the topic well (Cynthia did guess the association right).  This particular image was taken using my camera phone.  I did a rotation and crop the image to the right size.  And I surgically removed the dried leaf on top of the car.  Other than that, there isn’t much alternation to the original picture.

Spanish Class

I look forward to the Spanish class because after all the daily 9-to-5 bombardments in the office, the one thing I look forward to is my weekly 2 hours of dedicated time in learning a new skill.

Can passion be nurtured over time?  I hope so.

Cynthia has a natural talent in learning languages.  For me, I am going to once again deploy my hardcore repetitive drilling exercise.  I write, and write, till these foreign words are scribbled into my brain in black and white.

The variation of Spanish verb forms is just amazing and they have this concept of formal and casual,  permanent and temporary.  In English, we have “I am married” or “I am a man”.  In Spanish, the verb used for the former is different from the one used for the latter because to the Spanish, being married is temporary while being a man is permanent.  So, it is a little bit more complicated than “I am” in English.

And we have to learn by heart that shop, factory, and office for instance take in a feminine form while school, hospital, and farm take in a masculine form.  To introduce you as my friend if you are a guy, I would refer you as “un amigo mío” – literally means a friend of mine.  If you are a lady, all three words have to be switched to “una amiga mía”.  If I am to introduce you as a group of ladies, that would be “unas amigas mías”.  Otherwise, in a mixed gender or only men situation, “unos amigos míos”.

My 6th and 7th lessons are certainly more demanding than the previous one that we sang birthday song and what not.  But certainly we are expanding on what we can converse, in Spanish.

Below are samples of what I managed to squeeze into my brain before the lesson.

Categories
Party

Reigning Singapore DJ Champ Ate the Rest of the Contestants Alive at Zouk

So I was invited to attend the DJ Championship Singapore Finals at Zouk and took some rather exclusive photos on the lovely ladies from TDK Life on Record.  Gosh, I love my ”˜job’.

Now, why would I wish to spoil the photo with my mug shot?  So I deployed my humble assistant journalist, my de facto model to record the moment of “yes we were there”.  Right after the shots, Cynthia grabbed my camera in one swift motion.  I was shocked by her eagerness to view my quite-possibly-award-winning pictures of the evening.  She held up the camera asked me point-blank with a smile, “I don’t look too bad compared to these models, do I?”

Uh-oh.  Red alert.  It is like that “Am I fat?” question that we guys have to face constantly in our lifetime – from our girlfriends, or sisters, or sisters’ girl friends, or girl friends’ sisters.  If I could choose, going back in time, between …

… the TDK Life on Record headsets these models were holding and my Sennheiser …

As the music was blasting on the dance floor, we tried out the two (headphone) models – ST-200, the street style Hi-fi studio headphones that comes in 3 designs (S$29.90) and ST-Pro400, the Professional DJ studio headphones (S$59.90) – and I must say they are pretty value for money.  They shielded most of the noise out and I was happily bobbing my head up and down to the music these (TDK Life on Record) models were playing.

As for the event, I don’t know which one is more distractive – the constant smooching from the couple less than a few inches away from my face or the constant technical problems faced by the DJs.  Nevertheless, it was eye opening to see them (the contestants) in action.  The blending of sound from the vinyl records played from two different turntables, the control of volume and speed and the precise timing of two music sources that can either be identical or different, the creation of the mad scratching sound, and the stop and go of the turntable in fabricating a dramatic entrance and exit feel – all orchestrated by the magical hands of the DJs.  And that’s not all.  The good ones are those who come with a personality, a pair of calm hands, and the creativity to construct a musical piece that rallies the mood of the crowd.  It is a skill, for sure.  Even with the markings on the vinyl records, things can go wrong.

When the reigning DMC Singapore champ, DJ Inquisitive, took the stage, he practically ate the rest of the contestants alive.  The crowd went wild.  Not surprisingly, he won the finals and will represent Singapore in the battling of the World Supremacy title in London.

Congratulations to all the contestants who made it out there on the stage.  And to DJ Inquisitive, best of luck in UK.  I will upload one video I have taken.  Perhaps on a Friday evening to get y’all in a party mood.

PS: Zouk cardholders get an S$10 discount off the TDK Life on Record headphones (ST-Pro400, ST-Pro300 and NC-100 models) at Cyberactive outlets.  Check them out if you are looking for one.

Related Post: Video Clip of DJ Inquisitive at Zouk, Singapore for the DMC World Championship Country Finals